The Nation - News from Aug. 11, 1989

Maryland’s four-year ban on rockfish fishing will be lifted next year after surveys this summer convinced state regulators that the species is recovering after years of overfishing and pollution. At a waterside news conference near Baltimore, Gov. William Donald Schaefer said he wants to allow one-month recreational and commercial fishing seasons, with limits on size and the total catch. The commercial harvest of rockfish, also known as striped bass, one of the state’s official symbols and once an economic mainstay, fell from an estimated 5 million pounds in 1960 to about 500,000 pounds by the 1980s.