Longtime fish ban ending this fall

Posted 6:19PM on Thursday 7th July 2005 ( 19 years ago )

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) After 14 years, South Carolina anglers along the Lower Savannah River will again get the chance to catch and keep striped bass. A harvest moratorium enacted by South Carolina in 1991 ends Oct. 1, according to the state Natural Resources Department. A ban was first imposed by Georgia in 1988 after biologists found the striped bass and hybrids populations had drastically declined in the 1980s, the agency said. The department says the numbers of striped bass in the area have increased enough that a lifting of the moratorium was possible. Anglers had been under catch-and-release rules during the ban. ``Lifting the striped bass moratorium on the Lower Savannah River on Oct. 1 will allow anglers a chance to harvest fish for consumption and possibly trophy fish,'' said Chris Thomason, Natural Resources fisheries biologist. The affected area includes the Savannah River from the Lake Thurmond dam downstream to the river's mouth. Natural Resources fisheries biologist Chris Thomason says the downturn came about because of poor reproduction of the native species. Thomason says a tide gate built in 1977 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a diversion canal and a deepened channel in the area raised salinity levels, flow velocities and silt in spawning areas. Since the ban, the tide gate was removed and the diversion canal filled in. Georgia outdoors officials restocked the region with fish to increase numbers. The state Natural Resources Board, after hearing biologists' recommendations, asked state lawmaker to enact a law to lift the ban. The General Assembly did so in May, and established catch and size limits to ensure the striped bass population would remain stable, the department said. The South Carolina agency says Georgia also is expected to ease its striper ban this fall. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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