- Division of Marine Fisheries
In December 2024, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Striped Bass Management Board initiated Draft Addendum III to Amendment 7 to consider management actions in response to the 2024 Stock Assessment for Atlantic Striped Bass. Since then, the Management Board has met twice more (in February and May) and provided additional direction on the range of alternatives for development (including some outside the scope of rebuilding). Draft Addendum III has the potential to change commercial and recreational fishery regulations coastwide beginning as soon as 2026.
As of May 2025, Draft Addendum III is being developed to consider four main management topics, as listed below. Note that the Management Board will be reviewing these issues and the specific alternatives again in August 2025 and still has the opportunity to remove or amend any of them, before (and if) approving Draft Addendum III for public comment.
- Changing the recreational and commercial management measures to increase the probability of achieving a rebuilt stock in 2029.
- Modifying the coastwide commercial tagging program to require point-of-harvest tagging.
- Standardizing the method for measuring the total length of a striped bass for compliance with size limits.
- Modifying the recreational fishing season in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay to increase fishing access without increasing fishery removals.
If Draft Addendum III is approved for public comment in August 2025, a comment period including coastwide state public hearings will most likely be held in late August to early October, so that the Management Board could take final action on the draft addendum at the ASMFC Annual Meeting in late October. This would allow states to then implement selected measures in time for the 2026 fishing season.
DMF has updated its online Striped Bass Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to include a section on the 2024 Stock Assessment and Possible 2026 Management Changes. This FAQ includes key takeaways about the status of the stock, the rebuilding trajectory, the management measures being considered in Draft Addendum III, and the implications for Massachusetts. Previously published sections of the FAQ, which focuses on interstate management actions, also cover the 2023 Emergency Action and the 2024 Addendum II Measures.
There are some major changes on the table in Draft Addendum III—including the possible implementation of first-ever recreational fishing seasons that could keep anglers from harvesting or even targeting striped bass for portions of the year, differential size limits for recreational anglers based on how they access the fishery (i.e., for-hire vessel, private vessel, or shore), a commercial quota reduction, and programmatic requirements that could necessitate drastically limiting entry in the commercial fishery. (DMF has already amended its definition of striped bass total length to adopt most if not all of what it proposed for standardization along the coast, notably that the tail must be pinched. See Regulatory Updates, page 22)
Stakeholder involvement in fisheries management is critical, so please READ THE FAQ (and check back for updates!) and keep a look out for future public comment opportunities on Draft Addendum III. If you have additional relevant questions about what’s going on with striped bass management that are not addressed in these FAQs, we encourage you to reach out to DMF at marine.fish@mass.gov so we can add them.
By Nichola Meserve, Interstate Fisheries Management Analyst
