A critical moment for striped bass on the Atlantic coast
October 10, 2025
David Stormer, Ph.D.
Habitat Restoration Director
Key takeaways
- Striped bass are overfished, and the current population rebuilding plan for the East Coast from Maine to the Carolinas is unlikely to succeed without stronger action.
- Riverkeeper supports more protective management measures — including a 12 percent reduction in harvest and limited, seasonal closures for only striped bass — to boost recovery chances by 2029.
- Restoring striped bass now will help revive a vital coastal species and ensure future fishing opportunities.
Striped bass is the most popular species for recreational anglers in the Hudson River estuary, and a keystone species to the Atlantic coast ecosystem. In East Coast marine waters, Atlantic striped bass are cooperatively managed from Maine to North Carolina as part of an interstate fisheries management plan coordinated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). Atlantic striped bass were declared overfished in 2019 and subsequently subjected to a 10-year rebuilding plan that requires the stock (the segment of the population subject to management measures) to be rebuilt by 2029 to its targeted spawning stock biomass (the estimated total weight of all sexually mature adult female fish in the population).
We are now more than halfway through the timeline of the rebuilding plan, and unfortunately, the most recent stock assessment estimates that there is only a 30 percent chance of the stock being rebuilt by 2029 under current management measures. In December 2024, the ASMFC’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board initiated the development of “Draft Addendum III to Amendment 7” to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass, to consider recreational and commercial management measures to support rebuilding the stock by the target date. In August 2025, the Board specified several changes to the draft addendum options and approved it for public comment. Final action on the draft addendum is planned for no later than October 2025 with intended implementation in 2026.
Many alternatives are on the table for the ASMFC Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board to consider during the October 2025 meeting to achieve rebuilt status by 2029, and Riverkeeper supports the option that will at least meet, if not exceed, the 50 percent probability target of rebuilding the stock by the target date. This option would require at least a 12 percent reduction in 2026 commercial and ocean recreational fishery removals, including a “no-targeting” seasonal closure from Connecticut through North Carolina during parts of November and December, during which recreational fishing could still occur, but target species other than striped bass. A similar no-targeting closure would be implemented in New England waters (Maine through Rhode Island) but at a different time of year.
It is important to note that this non-permanent, no-targeting regional closure would have less impact than alternatives to the seasonal closure on New York, and is the shortest time period closure of all the options for this region. Further, we make this recommendation with the understanding that, from an enforcement perspective, New York's existing closure already contributes to different season dates within New York and between New York and neighboring states. Finally, although this management measure would narrow the available window of opportunity to fish for striped bass in ocean waters during the 2026 fishing year, it would generate a greater probability that the stock can rebuild by the ASMFC’s target year of 2029 and likely even earlier, possibly leading to a relaxing of management measures and more opportunities for the recreational anglers in future years.
The Atlantic striped bass is a living symbol of biological resilience, and the pulse of our coastal waters. Restoring the population of this species now will connect generations of anglers, communities, and ecosystems from Maine to the Carolinas into the future. Founded by striped bass anglers, Riverkeeper has long been an advocate for ecosystem based fisheries management strategies that promote the health of the Hudson River estuary.
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Position statement