Key Objective: Summarize information available about movement and populations of striped bass and bluefish up and down the coast. Act as a technical resource to the other workgroups - for example, are there distinct population patterns that can explain observed variability in PCB levels?

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DRAFT BIOLOGY CHAPTER

I've updated the bio chapter with the new regulations and the new harvest data from MRFSS. I know the chapter numbers, figure numbers, etc. are off - that will be autocorrected once I reincorporate it into the document. PLEASE check your state regulations and confirm if they are correct. Please send comments to: Eric Frohmberg.

DRAFT BIOLOGY CHAPTER

Please send comments to: Eric Frohmberg. We will discuss this chapter in our upcoming organizational meeting (date to be determined). We will collect and evaluate all the comments during that meeting. PLEASE READ AND SEND COMMENTS

Upcoming Meetings

Thursday, February 17th at 10 AM. Draft Agenda

Also, as a perhaps discussion point, to get at several of the issues I've brought up in the agenda, I've done a very quick analysis of the tagging and recapture data from the ASMFC Stock Assessment Report for Atlantic Striped Bass. What I've done is taken the DRAFT data from Table 29 and plot it by month along the coast - identifying where fish were caught and where they came from. So, each DOT represents one fish, while a SQUARE represents 5 fish. The color of the dot or square matches the color of the state where it was tagged. For you biologists out there, is this a fruitful effort at all to get at the issue of whether we are sampling fish from different populations? (See Agenda). Or is this data just too sketchy to draw any larger conclusions.... Click here for the maps (PDF format). We can discuss on Feb 17. Thanks.

Also, attached see data (click here) from Rick Greene in Delaware. Ron Sloan from NY says he has similar data. What this shows is PCB concentrations in striped bass in the Delaware Bay (caught in February) and in the Delware River (caught in April/May). Rick is fairly confident that these are from the same population of fish - hence what we are seeing is a fairly significant short term decrease in PCB concentrations. This will be relevant our discussion of part 3A&B of the agenda (A). Are variations in PCB concentration due to differences in populations (e.g., populations that are picking up PCBs in localized sources). B). Are variations in PCB concentration due to changes in lipid concentrations (e.g., fat fish just before spawning or lean fish post spawning)).

Notes from Feb 17 meeting of Biology Workgroup

Stock assessment reports (with tagging data) are found on Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Website Click on managed species, then striped bass. Once on the striped bass page scroll down to the stock assessment reports and click on 2004, which is the latest report. Once you have the report go to page 88, Table 29 to view the recapture data for each tagging program along the coast. The Producer Area tagging program summaries start on page 90.

Friday, March 18th 10 AM

Chapter Outline/Agenda

Notes from March 18 meeting

A quick description of the magnitude of the striped bass and bluefish fishery along the Atlantic Coast. Of particular interest are charts 2 and 3.

NEXT MEETING: Friday, April 29th 10 AM

A description of relevant striper biology

A description of relevant bluefish biology

A quick description of the magnitude of the striped bass and bluefish fishery along the Atlantic Coast, Modified based on comments (includes A and B1 harvest types).

Meeting Minutes

Striped Bass and Bluefish Coastal Workgroup Home

Program INFORMATION

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