Striped bass landings on the United States Atlantic coast fell sharply through the late 1970s and early 1980s, with recruitment in the Chesapeake Bay, the principal nursery, collapsing to a small fraction of earlier levels. Overfishing was compounded by poor water quality and weak year classes.
The response was unusual in its coordination. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission set a coastwide plan, several states imposed moratoria or severe restrictions in the mid-1980s, and federal legislation gave the plan teeth by allowing a fishing shutdown in any state that failed to comply. The stock was declared restored in the mid-1990s.
The lesson usually drawn is that a single-species recovery is achievable when the fish is short-migrating enough to be managed by one set of jurisdictions, its nursery habitat still exists, and the political will holds. The lesson often missed is that recovery is not permanent: striped bass has since been declared overfished again, and the stock has required renewed rebuilding measures. What role warming water and Chesapeake recruitment failures play alongside fishing mortality is contested.