Delaware’s recreational striped bass size limit was revised May 21 to ensure compliance with an emergency action by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced.

The revision changes the recreational striped bass size limit from a slot of 28-35 inches to a 28-to-31-inch slot.

Such limits are used for conservation of species on the rebound from diminished stocks and aim to protect fish too small to have spawned and reproduced, while allowing larger fish, most of them fecund females, to continue to spawn.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission took action in response to a recreational striper harvest of 3,482,819 fish in 2022, nearly double the 2021 amount.

In weighing last year’s harvest alongside the commission’s new stock rebuilding projections, the probability of reaching a 2029 target dropped from 97% under the lower 2021 recreational fishing mortality rate to less than 15% if the 2022 mortality rate was to continue each year.

The emergency 31-inch maximum size is expected to reduce the harvest of the strong 2015-year striped bass class, which will enable the opportunity for more fish from that year to spawn.

There will be no change to the state’s one striped bass possession limit or to the recreational striper season, open year-round.

Additionally, the move does not affect the summer striped bass slot season, which allows anglers fishing the Delaware River, the Delaware Bay and their tidal tributaries to possess one 20-to-25-inch striped bass daily from July 1 through Aug. 31.

The limit can be found in the online version of the 2023 Delaware Fishing Guide. For information, anglers can call the department’s Fisheries Section at 302-739-9914.