The Daily Fuckup

NOAA Fisheries on April 29 approved conservation equivalency for the Mid-Atlantic summer flounder and black sea bass recreational fisheries and said it was implementing Framework 19 to the fishery management plan. The agency’s own summary says federal coastwide measures are waived in favor of state- or region-developed rules, including minimum sizes, possession limits and seasons, rather than one single federal black sea bass limit for the coast. ([fisheries.noaa.gov](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/2026-and-2027-summer-flounder-scup-and-black-sea-bass-recreational-management-measures))

That federal action came after Maryland and Delaware had already put their 2026 black sea bass plans on the books. Maryland’s public notice set the state-water season from May 1 through Dec. 31, 2026, and the federal-water season from May 15 through Sept. 30, with different possession limits depending on where anglers fish. Delaware’s April 20 notice said DNREC had revised the 2026-2027 recreational rules for black sea bass to comply with the fishery management plan, and the state’s notice page says the revised regulations allow a May 1 opening. ([dnr.maryland.gov](https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/documents/public_notices/pn_2026_blackseabass_effective4-19-2026.pdf))

The timing drew a direct complaint from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who said during an April 22 hearing that NOAA had already told Mid-Atlantic states and fisheries managers it would not be ready to implement the new measures in time. In his statement, he said he pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the delay and tied the issue to the start of the fishing season. ([vanhollen.senate.gov](https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/news/press-releases/van-hollen-statement-on-trump-administrations-long-delayed-approval-of-increased-recreational-black-sea-bass-catch-in-the-mid-atlantic))

The practical effect is straightforward: NOAA did not impose a coastwide black sea bass harvest limit on April 29. It approved the conservation-equivalency approach that lets states and regions write the actual recreational rules for their waters, and the states had already done that work before the federal paperwork caught up. ([fisheries.noaa.gov](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/2026-and-2027-summer-flounder-scup-and-black-sea-bass-recreational-management-measures))