Managing Fisheries
The Chesapeake's commercial fisheries supply us with delicious shellfish, help keep the local economy strong and sustain unique, culturally rich working waterfronts. However, overfishing, along with pollution, disease and other stressors, has caused many once-vibrant fish stocks to drop to low levels. Some success stories exist: striped bass, once severely depleted, has rebounded and is considered restored. Others, such as blue crabs, face an uncertain future. Bay Program state and federal partners are working on ecosystem-based fishery management plans for several key Bay species, which will help scientists better understand how stock abundance relates to prey availability, habitat quality and other factors.
Proper management of the crab harvest, as well as water quality improvements and bay grass restoration efforts, will help restore the Bay's blue crab population and maintain this valuable resource into the future.
Bay Program partners developed the 2004 Chesapeake Bay Oyster Management Plan to help restore and maintain the valuable ecological services provided by native oysters while continuing to support the fishery.
The commercial fishery for American shad has been closed Bay-wide since the mid-1990s. Researchers and managers are stocking hatchery-raised fish, removing dams and installing fish passages on key Bay rivers.
The Atlantic menhaden fishery is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which tracks and regulates how many menhaden are—and can be—caught each year.
The recent history of striped bass in the Bay—full population restoration after steep declines in the 1970s and 1980s—represents a management success story.