Striped drum race triples in Gulf of St. Lawrence

The conspicuous liberation of striped drum in a southern Gulf of St. Lawrence reached rare levels in 2017, according to a latest comment from a sovereign Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Department scientists say a spawning race tripled between 2016 and 2017 and is now estimated during one million fish — a 100-fold boost from a 1990s.

In further to a race rebound, tagged striped drum from a Gulf were recovered from Rimouski, Que., north to Labrador for a initial time in 2017.

In a Forteau Bay area of Labrador, catches of tens of thousands were reported.

An unclear angler shows off a striped drum held Mar 20 while ice fishing in southern Labrador. Striped drum are not routinely seen this distant north. (Atlantic Salmon Federation)

• Striped drum found in southern Labrador, anglers asked to recover any fish caught

“I consider this is unusual,” said Trevor Avery, a sea biologist during Acadia University who is tracking a stretched operation of Gulf striped bass. “This seems to be a first-time sighting in, let’s use a term, in vital memory.” 

Until final summer, a northern extent of a reliable placement for southern Gulf striped drum had been a Gaspé Peninsula.

Is a warming sea responsible?

Just because this is function has not been definitively determined. Avery said a multiple of variables can contribute, including presence of larvae, a healthier ecosystem and some-more attract fish.

Another pivotal cause could be warming sea temperatures.

DFO did not make any of a 11 scientists who contributed to a news accessible for an interview.

“The reason for this extended emigration and either it will be steady in destiny years is unknown, though it might have been compared with above normal sea H2O temperatures in a Gulf of St. Lawrence in new years,” DFO pronounced in a report.

The quip story 

When a spawning race collapsed in a 1990s, DFO started shutting fisheries.

The blurb fishery was close down in 1996, followed four years later by recreational and Indigenous fisheries. 

In 2004, Gulf striped drum was listed as a threatened class by sovereign authorities.

The blurb striped drum fishery was close down in 1996, and in 2004 Gulf striped drum was listed as a threatened class by sovereign authorities.

But a race came behind and in 2012, First Nations food, amicable and rite fisheries were backed and a recreational fishery reopened in 2013.

2017 noted a seventh true year striped drum met class liberation targets.

Trap nets overwhelmed 

For several weeks each year, a epicentre of a Gulf striped drum race is a northwest Miramichi River, where hundreds of thousands lapse to parent in May and June.

That’s where scientists count them, tab others and make race estimates formed on models.

The run coincides with a blurb gaspereau trap net fishery on a northern Miramichi that is used to guard striped bass.

‘Something weird going on’

Nathan Wilbur, New Brunswick module executive for a Atlantic Salmon Federation, said the striped drum blast was partial of a weird 2017 off New Brunswick.

“Last year there was something weird going on in a Gulf of St. Lawrence,” he said, indicating to a coming of endangered North Atlantic right whales in large numbers. “Fishermen in Newfoundland were saying class they’d never seen before.”

Fish float in a Shubenacadie River, one of a strongholds of a striped bass. (Robert Short/CBC)

Wilbur argues striped drum are now so countless it’s time for a small, First Nations blurb fishery in a Miramichi. He said striped drum entering a complement were already holding a fee on Atlantic salmon smolts on their approach out to sea.

“With a race of spawning drum tripled, a fear is predation might have increasing utterly a bit as well,” Wilbur said.

Recreational fishery value millions

Jeff Wilson co-hosts a Striper Cup, an annual striped drum contest in a Miramichi.

“We have to be careful. The race could pile-up quickly,” Wilson said. “We have to make tiny adjustments to a collect module in sequence to make certain we have this fish for years and years to come.”

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/striped-bass-gulf-of-st-lawrence-population-recovery-1.4613759?cmp=rss