Speckled trout being affected by loophole

When I coached lacrosse, two lessons

I constantly preached were carryovers from my playing days:

Buckle your chin strap tight and keep your head on a swivel.

The head-on-a-swivel thing has been useful in my life afield and on the water, especially when spying working ducks or navigating through heavy boat traffic and rough water.

Those twin axioms are particularly useful in my fisheries conservation work too. Things move slowly until they don’t, and issues can pop up or resurface when you least expect it so you need to be ready for anything.

Take nets, as an example.

Last week, a friend sent a photo taken by his friend of scores of speckled trout penned in an area between the Poquoson River and Back Creek on Virginia’s western shore (I’ve fished this area, and it is magical). As expected, the photo has made the rounds on social media, with hundreds of anglers decrying the practice.

I didn’t know exactly what was I looking at, but I knew I didn’t like it. So I made some calls, including to a full-time fishing guide and a speckled trout fanatic who keeps a meticulous catch log. They quickly brought me up to speed.

The short version is that as a result of a loophole in a commercial fishing regulation passed this past summer by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, a technique known as “stop netting” has been used on speckled trout.

With origins in the North Carolina mullet fishery, the Virginia version of “stop netting” uses a haul seine to keep alive large numbers of speckled trout in the net’s pocket (there’s a rumor one net held as many as 2,000 trout!).

The fish are then harvested — not once by a single license holder, but multiple times over many days and often by several license holders. Many of the speckled trout trapped are breeding-sized females.

Technically, this is legal under the current rules that allow 100 pounds of speckled trout per boat to be harvested as incidental catch — a fancier word for by-catch. The quota was caught many weeks ago, but the harvest continued.

I don’t blame those who saw the Mack truck-sized loophole and drove right through it. Ambiguity is a fact of life, but it has no place in sound fishery management.

Plus, I cannot imagine this is what commissioners had in mind when asked to address the supposed “by-catch” problem. The result has been nothing short of a targeted harvest of a prized game fish.

VMRC is aware of the issue and has told me it is working on a fix to close the “stop net loophole” and hopefully clarify haul seine regulations, yet its timetable or specific recommendations are presently unknown.

Two states that have recognized specks for their true value as quality gamefish are South Carolina (which designated spotted seatrout as a gamefish in 1987) and Florida (which banned gill nets in its coastal waters in 1995).

Several years ago, Maryland and Virginia anglers supported stricter size limits and cuts in the daily creel. Manage speckled trout for maximum abundance, not for maximum harvest, the sport fishing community has said repeatedly.

It’s notable there is no speckled trout stock assessment, due primarily to the largely non-migratory nature of the species and the lack of data on migration where it does occur, according to the Atlantic State’s Marine Fishery Commission. Until we have a better handle on the current status of the stock, it’s imperative to manage this popular gamefish conservatively.

Closer to home, here’s something else to keep our collective conservation eyes on. Once again, a haul seine bill (HB 843) is expected to be reintroduced when the General Assembly convenes in January for its 2022 legislative session. Tributaries that could potentially be impacted include Herring Bay, South River, Rhode River and West River along with Whitehall Creek, Meredith Creek and Lake Ogleton.

During the 2021 session, the misguided bill was beaten back thanks in part to local citizens and groups like the Severn River Association, as well as opposition testimony from the Naval Support Activity Annapolis and Coastal Conservation Association. These folks rightly highlighted the negative impacts the seine gear could have on yellow perch, panfish and chain pickerel, as well as underwater grasses.

Tell your elected officials it was a bad idea last year that hasn’t improved with age. Maryland’s 2022 legislative session has not begun, but it’ll be here before we know it. Best we keep our head on a swivel and tighten up that chinstrap.