Spiked might be an understatement.
Preliminary Marine Recreational Information Program data for the 2022 season has recently been released. It contains some bad news for striped bass. Last year’s recreational harvest was about double the harvest in 2021.
Anglers landed an estimated 3,521,065 striped bass in 2022, 91% more than the 1,841,901 bass landed in the previous season. Live releases were almost the same for the two years, with an estimated 29,458,293 bass released last season, versus 28,687,920 returned to the water in 2021. If the accepted 9% release mortality rate is applied to those figures, we end up with a total of 6,172,311 striped bass killed by the recreational fishery in 2022, as compared to 4,423,813 in 2021.
LINK (via One Angler’s Voyage)
