Sag Harbor - Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) announced that a new law which prohibits the taking of striped bass for commercial purposes from the Hudson River from the George Washington Bridge to the federal dam at Troy was ill-advised and is poor policy.

This new law which will sunset on April 1, 2015, extends an already existing, ongoing ban on commercial take of striped bass in the Hudson River (6 NYCRR Section 11.3).

Striped bass have always been an important recreational and commercial fish in New York. Until the mid 1990s, striped bass were relatively rare in the Hudson River because a small minimum size (16 inches) was set for recreational and commercial take in the ocean. This small minimum size limit resulted in immature fish being killed before they could migrate back to the Hudson River to spawn. Thankfully, in the mid 1980s, stricter management measures, including an increase in the minimum size limit, were instituted and the Hudson River stock rebounded.

Scientific data indicates that re-opening the Hudson River commercial striped bass fishery would not lead to a depletion of the Hudson River striped bass stock. The most recent stock assessment conducted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) completed in 2009 indicated that striped bass are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. According to ASMFC, the striped bass population has increased from less than nine million fish in 1982 to over 70 million fish in 2004.
Spawning stock biomass remains well above the threshold and target levels.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has a
rigorous, and widely respected stripped bass management program, which
includes regulatory, tracking and monitoring measures. NYSDEC data indicates
that the Hudson River striped bass fishery can support a commercial fishery.

More so, the NYSDEC and the New York State Department of Health have been regularly monitoring the PCB levels in Hudson River striped bass. The monitoring indicates that PCB levels in Hudson River striped bass have sharply declines since 1976.

Assemblyman Thiele stated, "The State Legislature is nowhere qualified to manage this fish species. The NYSDEC, our State agency responsible for protecting and managing our great natural resources, has the scientific and management expertise to determine whether or not the ban should be extended.

The recent actions by the Legislature were obviously not scientifically-based, because there is no biological reason to continue the ban on commercial take from the Hudson."