With stock assessments looking good for black sea bass north of Cape Hatteras, regulators have proposed opening black Atlantic sea bass season for one month this February.
Both the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission considered several options for expanding opportunity to harvest this important recreational species. The decision to open the season in February was geared toward providing a target species in winter, when there are fewer recreational species available to target.
In 2015, black sea bass was the second most landed finfish in the Atlantic U.S. recreational fishery (12.9 million fish). The December 2016 black sea bass stock assessment determined that the black sea bass stock north of Cape Hatteras is not overfished, overfishing is not occurring, and biomass was 129% above the biomass target.
The existing recreational measures of a 15 fish per angler possession limit and a 12.5-inch minimum fish size would be maintained for this additional season.