Read this post on Substack. Top photo: John McMurray

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) plays a big role in East Coast fisheries management. It has the primary responsibility for drafting and updating management plans for important commercial and recreational species such as striped bass, red drum and menhaden, while also working with the regional fishery management councils to develop management measures that will complement federal regulations in state waters, where the National Marine Fisheries Service’s management authority is extremely limited.

Consequently, the ASMFC also comes in for a big share of blame when the stocks that it manages fail to thrive. It has been heavily criticized for allowing the Atlantic striped bass stock to again become overfished, after it had collapsed, and then been rebuilt, a few decades ago, as well as for its more recent decision not to reduce Atlantic menhaden landings after a stock assessment update revealed that the stock was substantially smaller, and fishing mortality significantly higher, than previously believed.

Yet, while it’s not hard to find fishermen who are willing to provide their opinions about how well the ASMFC is doing its job, it is far more difficult to learn how those who are actually making the ASMFC’s fishery management decisions feel about the organization’s actions. But at the beginning of every year, the ASMFC publishes the results of its annual survey of commissioners, giving people a look at the insiders’ views.

Unfortunately, the most recent survey elicited a much poorer response than its immediate predecessors, with only 23 commissioners responding, compared to 28 in 2024 and 33 in 2023. The memorandum reporting on its results asserted that “The lower sample size from this year’s survey has exaggerated some of the trends in commissioner’s responses,” and that certainly could be true, although it is also possible that the respondents, although fewer in number, still provided a representative sample of all the commissioners’ views.

But even assuming that the respondents did present an exaggerated or somehow skewed view of commissioners’ opinions, it is tempting to speculate why they answered the survey when many of their colleagues did not. Were other commissioners just too busy at the end of the year to bother? Or did the respondents just feel a particularly deep obligation to try to improve the workings of the ASMFC? Do the survey results represent the views of concerned commissioners who are actively trying to change the status quo, or merely reflect the ire of commissioners who are displeased that one or more management actions didn’t turn out the way they had hoped?

There is no way to be certain, but many of the most recent responses suggest that the ASMFC might benefit if some changes were made.

The survey’s very first questions address the basic issue of how well the ASMFC is carrying out its mission: “How comfortable are you that the Commission has a clear and achievable plan to reach the Vision (Sustainably managing Atlantic Coast Fisheries)?” and “How confident are you that the Commission’s actions reflect progress toward the Vision?”

Those questions, like most of the other questions on the survey, are scored on a 10-point scale. The scores for the first two questions were disappointingly low, 7.18 and 6.90, respectively, and were, in both cases, the lowest scores ever received in a time series dating back to 2009.

The questions received their highest scores over a decade ago, with the first reaching 8.37 in 2014 and the second reaching 8.52 in 2013. Both have been declining in fits and starts ever since, with the most recent scores notably lower than they were in 2024. Whether that drop was “exaggerated” due to the low number of responses, or whether the scores accurately reflected commissioners’ evaluation of the ASMFC’s effectiveness over the past year, remains an open question, although some written comments provided toward the end of the survey suggest that, at least for some commissioners, the latter was probably the case.

Responses to other questions could explain why commissioners are pessimistic about the ASMFC achieving its goals.

ASMFC declares on its website that “As a partnership of coastal states, we work together to protect essential marine species, ensuring vibrant fisheries, thriving communities, and resilient ecosystems, all through science-driven, cooperative management, [emphasis added]” and its approach to fisheries management assumes that all states will be willing to collaborate and manage species on a coastwide basis. Yet when the survey asked, “How satisfied are you with the cooperation between Commissioners to achieve the Commission’s Vision?” the question only scored a 6.55.

While not the lowest score in the time series (the same question scored a 6.45 in 2018), it was far below the 8.20 that the same question scored in 2012, and the 8.00s it scored in the two subsequent years. Yet such score shouldn’t surprise anyone who has listened in on the various species management board meetings, such as the January 2024 Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Bass Board) meeting, when fisheries managers from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia attempted to delay full implementation of an important addendum to the striped bass management plan, merely because their commercial fisheries were already open, and they didn’t want to take the bureaucratic steps needed to reduce fishermen’s quotas mid-season.

Similarly, the question “How satisfied are you with the Commission’s working relationship with our constituent partners (commercial, recreational, and environmental)?” scored a time series-low 6.15, a notable decline from the 7.92 it scored in 2013, the drop probably reflecting both how some commissioners feel about certain elements of the fishing community as well as how members of the fishing community feel about some commissioners. Either way, a poor relationship between the commissioners and the public can only make it harder for the ASMFC to do its job.

The commissioners’ views on other gauges of the ASMFC’s effectiveness were mixed.

They had a fairly positive view of the ASMFC’s progress on ending overfishing, awarding a score of 7.29, just slightly below the time series average of 7.39. However, when asked whether tracking the number of stocks where overfishing no longer occurred was “a clear metric to measure progress,” some commissioners apparently were no longer sure, as that question garnered a score of just 7.17, the second-lowest in a time series that ranged from 7.09 to 8.25. The high score was awarded only last year, and it’s not clear why the 2025 score was more than a full point lower.

Finally, there was the question, “Are you satisfied with the Commission’s ability to manage rebuilt stocks?”

It’s a key issue. It’s often easier for managers to adopt the measures needed to rebuild a stock that everyone agrees is in trouble, than it is for them to keep sustainable measures in place once successful rebuilding takes place, and fishermen yearn to increase their landings. The commissioners have never given the ASMFC high scores on the question; the long-term average is only 6.86, and the time series high is just 7.21, so the recent score of 7.06, as low at it is, suggests that the ASMFC might be having a little more success in recent years.

The scored questions provide some insight into what commissioners feel is going right and going wrong at the ASMFC, but they don’t do anything to explain why the problems are occurring, or offer any thoughts on how to overcome them.

Those questions are best answered by another set of questions, which seek more detailed written comments, such as the one which asked, “What is the single biggest obstacle to the Commission’s success in rebuilding stocks?”

Nine of the 19 people who answered that question replied with some variation on “politics,” with some of them citing the closely related issues of “Short-term stakeholder interests prioritized over resource impacts,” “balancing stakeholder desires vs taking stronger conservation measures,” and “Lack of will power to take action to restrict fishing mortality when stock status suggests action. Perfect recent examples striped bass [when the Bass Board voted against landings reductions that would make it more likely that the stock would fully rebuild by the deadline dictated by the management plan] and [Gulf of Maine] lobster [when objections by fishermen and some local politicians became so intense that the American Lobster Management Board reversed course and did not impose the measures called for in the management plan].”

Some elaborated on their views, saying that obstacles included “Not following the science due to political and/or commercial/recreational sector pressure,” and “Political impediments at both the state and Federal level are complicating efforts. Lobster, Menhaden, and Red Drum are examples.”

One commissioner provided a more detailed comment that helps to explain the drop in the survey scores described earlier, writing,

It seems that politics has become a serious problem at the ASMFC.

The only other obstacle to ASMFC success cited by more than two commissioners was climate/environmental change, which was mentioned in six responses. But as some of the respondents noted, that is a problem that is far beyond the ASMFC’s ability to solve.

The survey also asked, “What issue(s) should the Commission focus more attention/time on?”

The answers were diverse, but most shared one common characteristic: Although the commissioners had already acknowledged that there were obstacles making it difficult for the ASMFC to reach its goals, few said that the ASMFC should focus on finding ways to overcome them. Instead, the most common suggestion, raised by four of the 13 respondents, was for some sort of outreach to constituent groups.

One commissioner suggested “Outreach to create greater understanding of what we do and cannot do.” Another expanded on that theme, writing, “Educating the public on how the commission is structured and that it is a state based compact not as federal body. Perhaps a series of PR pieces that are light hearted a [sic] speak to the realities of the job and complexity of it.” But while such outreach might help reduce the amount of criticism aimed at the ASMFC, it’s hard to see how they might remove obstacles to the ASMFC achieving its goals.

Four other commissioners suggested that commissioners should be provided with more and/or better information; while that wasn’t a direct counter to the obstacles faced by the ASMFC, better informed commissioners probably would lead to better management decisions.

There were also three commissioners (one responding to a different question) who complained about the problems caused by a lack of cooperation between the commissioners, and between the ASMFC and other management bodies. To that point, one comment noted, “We have lost the ability to work together and compromise in best interest of the resource that we manage. We need to figure out a different/better way to work together with the [Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council]. Joint meetings are generally a waste of time and money as most of the recommendations are for status quo and it is impossible to get 60 individuals to do something different when one body or the other has veto power over the result.”

A more detailed, and more troubling, response, which reflects the realities of the current, conservation-averse approach to federal fisheries management, read,

But commissioners don’t blame federal managers and federal management bodies for all of the cooperation problems. As another noted, “Commission Employees are amazing. However, the decorum of the states representatives have [sic] eroded over the past 10 years and the ability to work with states to protect everyone’s interests has declined as a result.”

Commissioners also addressed the need for better socioeconomic data. “Socioeconomics” is a term often heard in ASMFC debates, but there is little agreement on what it means, or how it ought to be measured. Far too often, it seems to mean little more than “If the ASMFC does X, then I, my company, my friends, or my sector might end up making less money.”

That sort of discussion probably hit its low point at the Bass Board meeting held on December 16, 2024, when New Jersey’s Legislative Proxy, Adam Nowalsky, made a motion to initiate a new addendum to the striped bass management plan, “in consideration of 2024 recreational and commercial mortality while balancing socioeconomic impacts…” After another commissioner asked, “What is it that we’re going to be balancing those socioeconomic impacts against?” Nowalsky declined to provide an answer, responding only that “I would defer to the Board specifically for that…I think every one of the options that we are potentially contemplating today, or we would contemplate in this Addendum, has a socioeconomic impact,” and undoubtedly causing some Bass Board members to wonder why he raised the “socioeconomic” point in the first place.

In hopes of someday obtaining more meaningful socioeconomic information, one commissioner wrote,

Those are all good questions, but they only scratch the surface of what might be asked.

As part of the recent debate over Addendum III to the striped bass management plan, there were proposals to award anglers fishing from for-hire vessels with regulations that were more favorable than those governing anglers fishing from shore or from private boats. A proposed new amendment to the summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass and bluefish management plans would similarly favor for-hire anglers over other recreational fishermen. Yet the for-hire fleet is responsible for less than 2% of all striped bass trips, and for-hire anglers also generate only a small proportion of the trips targeting other species. So, would management measures that discriminate against most anglers, who take the great majority of fishing trips, be a net economic positive because it might shore up the for-hire fleet, or a net economic negative because it comes at the cost of, and perhaps discourages, most members of the angling community?

And what is the cost of the ASMFC’s failure to maintain robust fish populations?

Commissioners often argue against more restrictive management measures because of the immediate harm such measures might cause to the fishing industry. Yet no one has ever asked how much harm is caused by not adopting management measures that maintain stocks at higher levels.

In 2006, when the striped bass biomass was near its peak, recreational fishermen took approximately 25.8 million trips primarily targeting them; by 2025, with the stock overfished and abundance declining, that figure had dropped to just under 14 million trips. How much greater would the economic benefits from the fishery have been if the Bass Board had made the hard decisions needed to keep striped bass abundance high enough to support nearly 26 million directed striped bass trips per year, as was the case in 2006, instead of just the 14 million trips that were taken in 2025?

If the ASMFC developed the capability to conduct real socioeconomic analysis, questions like those could be answered, to the benefit of both fish and fishermen.

The ASMFC’s annual survey of commissioners provides an important insight into the organization. It provides a look at the problems that make it harder for the ASMFC to achieve its goals, at why those problems occur, and at how they might be addressed.

And it provides at least a partial roadmap to making the ASMFC a better and more effective organization than it is today.