Striped Bass

(Morone Saxatilis)

The striped bass is a popular game fish and is valued by sport and commercial fisherman alike. Often called "rockfish" or "rock", they spend most of their lives feeding in coastal areas, bays, and at the mouths of rivers. The striper is very adaptable and able to exist under a variety of conditions. However, there are periods, especially in its early life stages, when it is extremely vulnerable to changes in habitat quality. During the past two decades, striped bass numbers have decreased alarmingly, especially in the Chesapeake, once the spawning and nursery ground for nearly ninety percent of the Atlantic population.

Striped bass spawn in fresh water but spend most of their adult lives in the ocean. On the Atlantic coast, they range from the St. Lawrence River in Canada to Florida's St. John's River, although they are most prevalent from Maine to North Carolina.

Male stripers mature at two or three years and spend most of their lives feeding near their natal waters. Females migrate along the coast, returning for their first time to spawn at five or six years. It takes several years for spawning females to reach full productivity. An average six year old female produces half a million eggs while a fifteen year old can produce three million.

When water temperature begins to rise in the spring, mature fish start their spawning runs in freshwater rivers and streams, mostly tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Other important areas include the Hudson River and rivers along the North Carolina coast.

The silvery striped bass gets its name from the seven or eight dark, continuous lines along the side of its body. Most stripers weighing more than 30 pounds are females. The fish can weigh up to 100 pounds and reach nearly five feet in length.

From a record commercial catch of 14.7 million pounds in 1973, the harvest dropped to 1.7 million pounds just ten years later. Sport fishermen report an equally severe drop in their harvest. The decline meant a loss of some 7,000 jobs and $220 million in 1980, the latest year for which figures are available.

Causes of the decline are numerous and interwoven, and include over fishing, pollution, and the degradation or loss of habitat. Recently, due to improved management techniques, a hatchery program, and increased public awareness, the striper population has improved.

The stocking of hatchery-raised striped bass in itself will not ensure sustaining numbers of harvestable fish in the future. The Emergency Striped Bass Research Study, established in 1979 by a concerned U.S. Congress, has pinpointed other major corrective measures needed in addition to restoration stocking. Their recommendations include imposing a "substantial reduction" and possibly a moratorium on striped bass fishing in some areas; reducing discharge of toxic wastes into rivers and streams, especially near striped bass spawning and nursery areas; and continued research and monitoring of this important commercial and sport fish.

Striped bass were once abundant off the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. In fact, their numbers were so great, they were used to fertilize fields. With fishing restrictions, pollution control, stocking and-most important, commitment-the striper may again prosper. We have much to gain in restoring the striped bass and its Chesapeake home; we have much to lose if we decline the challenge.