| Striped bass | |
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| Morone saxatilis | |
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| Kingdom: | |
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| Genus: | |
| Species: | M. saxatilis
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| Binomial name | |
| Morone saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792)
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The striped bass (Morone saxatilis), also called Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater (marine) fish of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and New Hampshire. They are also found in the Minas Basin and Gaspereau River in Nova Scotia, Canada and the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, Canada.
Morphology and lifespan
editThe striped bass is a typical member of the Moronidae family in shape, having a streamlined, silvery body marked with longitudinal dark stripes running from behind the gills to the base of the tail. The maximum scientifically recorded weight is 57 kg (125 lb). Common mature size is 120 cm (3.9 ft). Striped bass are believed to live for up to 30 years.[1] The maximum length is 1.8 m (6 ft).[2] The average size is about 67–100 cm (2.2-3.3 ft) and 4.5-14.5 kg (10-32 lb).
Distribution
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Migration Patterns
editStriped bass have a preferred temperature range from 55 degrees F to 68 degrees F. In order to stay in this range, most Striped bass migrate to alternate locations. There are two categories of Striped bass; migrators and locals (holdovers). The migrators normally consist of older and larger bass. Younger bass stay around the bays and ocean beaches near where they were born until they are large and strong enough to join the migration. The length at which they begin to start migrating is around 30 inches. The younger fish are sometimes referred to as "Schoolies". The migration has two parts, a spring migration and a fall migration.
Spring Migration
editThe spring Striper migration begins from wintering quarters in the deeper waters off the Virginia and North Carolina coasts. In the spring Stripers head north, first going into the bays and up rivers to spawn, and to chase herring and shad. After spawning, they come down out of the rivers and hang around the local estuaries and beaches for awhile. But as the water warms, they migrate north seeking cooler waters. They end up throughout New England waters, and even further north than the Penobscot river in Maine. Seventy percent or more of the Stripers spawn in the rivers flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, however other rivers that support significant spawning runs include the Delaware and the Hudson.
Fall Migration
editIn the fall, as the water cools, the Stripers head south again. This also coincides with various baitfish, including peanut bunker and silversides, coming out of the bays and into the oceans. The Stripers, eager to fatten up for the winter ahead are hungry, and when they meet up with the emerging bait pods, blitzes can occur all along the coast. The fall migration extends into December along the New Jersey coast and even into January down around Virginia. Most of the migrating Striper end up back down in the deeper waters off of the Virginia and North Carolina coasts, where they will spend the winter.
Locals and Holdovers
editFor the first few years Stripers stay around the local rivers, bays and beaches where they were born. They begin feeding in the spring when the water temperatures get above 45 degrees F. As the spring progresses and the water warms, they will move out and hang around the ocean beaches. During the summer they seek deeper and cooler water. In the fall when the water cools and baitfish move out into the ocean, the local Striped bass will be there chasing them.
Natural distribution
editStriped bass are native to the Atlantic coastline of North America from the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of Mexico to approximately Louisiana. They are anadromous fish that migrate between fresh and salt water. Spawning takes place in fresh water.
Introductions outside their natural range
editStriped bass have been introduced to the Pacific Coast of North America and into many of the large reservoir impoundments across the United States by state game and fish commissions for the purposes of recreational fishing and as a predator to control populations of gizzard shad.[3][4][5] These include: Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico; Lake Ouachita, Lake Norman in North Carolina, Lake Norfork, Beaver Lake and Lake Hamilton in Arkansas; Lake Powell, Lake Pleasant, and Lake Havasu in Arizona; Castaic Lake and Lake George in Florida, Pyramid Lake, Silverwood Lake, Diamond Valley Lake, Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama [1], Lake Cumberland, and Lake Murray in California; Lake Lanier in Georgia; Watts Bar Lake, Tennessee; and Lake Mead, Nevada; Lake Texoma, Lake Tawakoni, Lake Whitney, Possum Kingdom Lake, and Lake Buchanan in Texas; Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania; and in Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake[6] and Leesville Lake.[7]
Striped bass have also been introduced into waters in Ecuador, Iran, Latvia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey, primarily for sport fishing and aquaculture.[1]
Environmental factors
editThe spawning success of striped bass has been studied in the San Francisco Bay-Delta water system, with a finding that high total dissolved solids (TDS) reduce spawning. At levels as low as 200 mg/l TDS, an observable diminution of spawning productivity occurs.[8] They can be found in lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands.
Former President of the United States George W. Bush, in Executive Order 13449 of October 20, 2007, designated the striped bass as a protected game fish. Further, he directed executive agencies to use existing legal authorities, to the extent possible, to prohibit the sale of striped bass caught in Federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.[9]
Life cycle
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Striped bass spawn in fresh water, and although they have been successfully adapted to freshwater habitat, they naturally spend their adult lives in saltwater (i.e., it is anadromous). Four important bodies of water with breeding stocks of striped bass are: Chesapeake Bay, Massachusetts Bay/Cape Cod, Hudson River and Delaware River. It is believed that many of the rivers and tributaries that emptied into the Atlantic, had at one time, breeding stock of striped bass. One of the largest breeding areas is the Chesapeake Bay, where populations from Chesapeake and Delaware bays have intermingled.[10] The very few successful spawning populations of freshwater striped bass include Lake Texoma, the Colorado River and its reservoirs downstream from and including Lake Powell, and the Arkansas River, as well as Lake Marion (South Carolina) that retained a landlocked breeding population when the dam was built; other freshwater fisheries must be restocked with hatchery-produced fish annually. Stocking of striped bass was discontinued at Lake Mead in 1973 once natural reproduction was verified.[11]
Hybrids with other bass
editStriped bass have also been hybridized with white bass to produce hybrid striped bass also known as wiper.[citation needed] These hybrids have been stocked in many freshwater areas across the US.[12][13]
Fishing for striped bass
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Striped bass are of significant value for sport fishing, and have been introduced to many waterways outside their natural range. A variety of angling methods are used, including trolling and surf casting, with topwater lures a good pick for surf casting. Striped bass will take a number of live and fresh baits, including bunker, clams, eels, sandworms, herring, bloodworms, mackerel, and shad, with the last being an excellent bait for freshwater fishing.
The largest striped bass ever taken by angling was a 81.88-lb (37.14-kg) specimen taken from a boat in Long Island Sound, near the Outer Southwest Reef, off the coast of Westbrook, Connecticut. The all-tackle world record fish was taken by Gregory Myerson[14] on the night of August 4, 2011. The fish took a drifted live eel bait, and fought for 20 minutes before being boated by Myerson. A second hook and leader was discovered in the fish's mouth when it was boated, indicating it had been previously hooked by another angler. The fish measured 54 in length and had a girth of 36 in. The International Game Fish Association declared Myerson's catch the new all-tackle world record striped bass on October 19, 2011.[15] In addition to now holding the All-Tackle record, Meyerson’s catch also landed him the new IGFA men’s 37-kg (80-lb) line class record for striped bass, which previously stood at 70 lb. The previous all-tackle world record fish was a 78.5-lb (35.6-kg) specimen taken in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 21, 1982[16] by Albert McReynolds, who fought the fish from the beach for 1:20 after it took his Rebel artificial lure. McReynolds' all-tackle world record stood for 29 years.[17]
Recreational bag limits vary by state and province.
Landlocked striped bass
editStriped bass are an anadromous fish, so their spawning ritual of traveling up rivers to spawn led some of them to become landlocked during lake dam constructions. The first area where they became landlocked was documented to be in the Santee-Cooper River during the construction of the two dams that impounded Lakes Moultrie and Marion, and because of this, the state game fish of South Carolina is the striped bass.[18]
Recently, biologists came to believe that striped bass stayed in rivers for long periods of time, with some not returning to sea unless temperature changes forced migration. Once fishermen and biologists caught on to rising striped bass populations, many state natural resources departments started stocking striped bass in local lakes. Striped bass still continue the natural spawn run in freshwater lakes, traveling up river and blocked at the next dam, which is why they are landlocked. Landlocked stripers have a hard time reproducing naturally, and one of the few and most successful rivers they have been documented reproducing successfully is the Coosa River in Alabama and Georgia.[19]
A 70.6-lb (32.0-kg) bass landlocked bass was caught in February 2013 by James Bramlett on the Warrior River in Alabama, a current world record.[20] This fish had a length of 44 inches (112 cm) and a girth of 37.75 inches (96 cm).
One of the only landlocked striped bass populations in Canada is located in the Grand Lake, Nova Scotia. They migrate out in early April into the Shubencadie River to spawn. These bass also spawn in the Stewiacke River (a tributary of the Shubencadie ). The Shubencadie River system is one of five known spawning areas in Canada for striped bass, with the others being the St. Lawerence River, Miramichi River, Saint John River, Annapolis River and Shubencadie/Stewiacke Rivers. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/species-especes/stripedbass-Fundy-barraye-eng.htm
Management
editThe striped bass population declined to less than 5 million by 1982, but efforts by fishermen and management programs to rebuild the stock proved successful, and in 2007, there were nearly 56 million fish, including all ages. Recreational anglers and commercial fisherman caught an unprecedented 3.8 million fish in 2006. The management of the species includes size limits, commercial quotas, and biological reference points for the health of the species. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission states that striped bass are "not overfished and overfishing is not occurring."[21]
Notes
edit- ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Morone saxatilis". FishBase. March 2007 version.
- ^ National Audubon Society (May 2001). National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes. Knopf, Rev Sub edition (May 21, 2002). ISBN 0375412247.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Striped Bass Management Plan retrieved on 10 June 2007.
- ^ Pennsylvania State Fish & Boat Commission, Gallery of Pennsylvania Fishes, Chapter 21. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
- ^ Indiana Fish and Wildlife, Evaluation of Striped Bass Stockings at Harden Reservoir. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
- ^ http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/waterbodies/display.asp?id=122
- ^ http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/waterbodies/display.asp?id=77
- ^ Kaiser Engineers, California, Final Report to the State of California, San Francisco Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Program, State of California, Sacramento, CA (1969)
- ^ "Executive Order 13449: Protection of Striped Bass and Red Drum Fish Populations". Office of the Federal Register. October 20, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2007.
- ^ Chesapeake Bay Program, Striped Bass
- ^ Wilde, G. R. and L.J. Paulson. 1989. Food habits of subadult striped bass in Lake Mead Arizona-Nevada. The Southwestern Naturalist 34(1) 118-123.
- ^ Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Status of the Striped Bass/Hybrid Bass Bass Fishery March 2006 retrieved 10 June 2007.
- ^ Pennsylvania State Fish & Boat Commission, Gallery of Pennsylvania Fishes, Chapter 21. Retrieved 10 June 2007.
- ^ Greg Myerson's World Record Striper Official Website
- ^ IGFA all-tackle world record striped bass
- ^ New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
- ^ David DiBendetto, On The Run, An Angler's Journey Down the Striper Coast, page 195
- ^ "History of Freshwater Striped Bass". Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ "Striped Bass in River Systems". Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ ""Word Record Landlocked Bass"". Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ "Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission: Striped Bass" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-07-02.
Other references
edit- Atlantic striped bass NOAA FishWatch. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
Category:Fishkeeping Category:Sport fish Category:Morone Bass, Striped Bass, Striped Category:Animals described in 1792 Category:Symbols of Rhode Island Category:Saltwater fish of Florida