Striped Bass
An excellent sportfish that attains large sizes, the striped bass is a member of the temperate bass family (often erroneously placed with the sea bass family). It has been considered one of the most valuable and popular fish in North America since the early 1600s, originally for its commercial importance and culinary quality, and in more recent times for its recreational significance. Striped bass have been successfully transplanted to landlocked freshwater environments and crossbred with related species. Both sea-run and landlocked stripers provide important angling opportunity in North America, and are among the most valued and prized species.
There have been great fluctuations in abundance of stripers in modern times, particularly in saltwater and on the East Coast, and many disputes among commercial and recreational interests. In California, the striped bass has been designated solely a gamefish since 1936, meaning that it cannot be harvested commercially from the wild, although it may be farmed. Gamefish designation has been sporadic and resisted on the East Coast, however, where stripers have historically been a mainstay of commercial fishing and where abundance has been threatened by overfishing, pollution, and other factors.
Identification A large fish with a large mouth, the striped bass is more streamlined than its close relative, the white bass. It has a long body and long head, a somewhat laterally compressed body form, and a protruding lower jaw. Of the two noticeably separate dorsal fins, the first one has 7 to 12 stiff spines, usually 9, which make this fin quite a bit higher than the second; the second dorsal fin has one sharp spine and 8 to 14, ordinarily 12, soft rays. The striped bass also has a forked tail and small eyes.
These fish are mostly bluish black or dark green above, fading into silver on the sides and white on the belly. On each side of its body, there are seven or eight prominent black horizontal stripes that run along the scale rows that are the distinctive markings of the striped bass; one of the stripes runs along the lateral line, and the rest is equally divided above and below it. The stripe highest up on the side is usually the most noticeable, although on some fish, one or more of the stripes is interrupted. Most of the fins are a dusky silver, with the exception of the white pelvic fins. The young of less than 4 inches long as well as the breeding adults have 8 to 10 dark vertical bars that are more apparent than the horizontal stripes. The vertical bars disappear as the fish mature.
In freshwater, the striped bass has been crossed with the white bass to create a hybrid called the whiterock bass (see: bass, whiterock) or sunshine bass (see: bass, sunshine). Striped bass differ from hybrids in the regularity of their stripes, whereas the hybrid usually has interrupted stripes. The narrow body of the striped bass also distinguishes it from the white bass.
Size/Age Growing rapidly in early life, striped bass average 5 to 10 pounds, although they often reach weights in the 30- to 50-pound range. The maximum size that a freshwater striped bass can achieve is unknown, although the largest sport-caught freshwater striper weighed 59 pounds, 12 ounces. The all-tackle record for the species-78 pounds 8, ounces-belongs to a saltwater fish, although larger ones have been reportedly taken commercially. Striped bass normally live 10 to 12 years, although most fish more than 11 years old and more than 39 inches long are female. The largest striped bass ever reported was a 125-pounder believed to be between 29 and 31 years old.
Distribution On the Atlantic coast of the United States, the striped bass commonly occurs from the St. Lawrence River south to the St. Johns River in northern Florida. It has also ranged along the coasts of Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico. Some fish migrate north from North Carolina, Virginia, or Maryland during the summer and return during the fall. Others living in estuarine river systems such as the St. Lawrence, the Santee-Cooper, or the Savannah are nonmigratory.
Striped bass were introduced to San Francisco Bay in 1879 and 1882; today, along the Pacific coast, they are abundant in the bay area and extend from Washington to California; some California fish migrate north to Oregon and are occasionally found off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Striped bass need rivers with long stretches of freshwater and brackish water for spawning. Only a few places meet that criteria; the Hudson River in New York and the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland are the most prominent spawning grounds and are inexorably linked to the abundance, distribution, and future of saltwater stripers.
Habitat Striped bass inhabit saltwater, freshwater, and brackish water, although they are most abundant in saltwater. They are anadromous and migrate in saltwater along coastal inshore environs and tidal tributaries. They are often found around piers, jetties, surf troughs, rips, flats, and rocks. A common regional name for stripers is "rockfish," and indeed their scientific name, saxatilis, means "rock dweller," although they do not necessarily spend most of their lives in association with rocks. They run far upstream during spawning runs and are also found in channels of medium to large rivers at that time. The striped bass is entirely a coastal species off the coast of the Carolinas and southward, never ranging more than a few miles offshore; along the entire Atlantic coast, they are rarely caught more than a short distance from shore except during migration.
Most striped bass along the Atlantic coast are involved in two types of migrations: an upriver spawning migration from late winter to early spring, and coastal migrations that are apparently not associated with spawning activity. Coastal migrations can be quite extensive; striped bass tagged in the Chesapeake Bay have been recaptured in the Bay of Fundy. Coastal migratory behavior appears to be limited to stocks north of Cape Hatteras and is related to sex and age.
Striped bass were introduced into freshwater lakes and impoundments with successful results. In some freshwater populations, striped bass were not introduced but landlocked, due to man-made barriers that blocked their return to the sea. In freshwater, stripers are commonly found in open-water environs, or in the tailrace below dams. They are seldom found near shore or docks or piers, except when chasing schools of baitfish.
Life history/Behavior Striped bass males are sexually mature by their second or third year, whereas females are sexually mature sometime between their eighth and ninth years; males measuring at least 7 inches, and females as small as 34 inches, are known to spawn. Spawning occurs in fresh or slightly brackish waters from mid-February in Florida to late June or July in Canada, and from mid-March to late July in California, when the water temperature is between 10° to 23°C; peak spawning activity is observed between 15° and 20°C. They prefer the mouths of freshwater tributary streams, where the current is strong enough to keep the eggs suspended.
Females can carry 180,000 to 4.5 million eggs, depending on their size. When mating, each female is accompanied by several smaller males. The spawning fish swim near the surface of the water, turning on their side and rolling and splashing; this display is sometimes called a "rock fight." The semibuoyant eggs are released and drift with the current until they hatch two to three days later, depending on the water temperature.
The young move downstream to the estuarine portions of rivers in the late summer or early fall. As young and as adults, striped bass move in schools, except for larger fish, which either travel alone or with a few others of similar size. Most striped bass along the Atlantic coast are involved in two types of migrations: an upriver spawning migration from late winter to early spring, and coastal migrations that are apparently not associated with spawning activity. Coastal migrations can be quite extensive; striped bass tagged in the Chesapeake Bay have been recaptured in the Bay of Fundy. Coastal migratory behavior in the Atlantic appears to be limited to stocks north of Cape Hatteras and is related to sex and age.
Food and feeding habits A voracious, carnivorous, and opportunistic predator, the striped bass feeds heavily on small fishes, including large quantities of herring, menhaden, flounder, alewives, silversides, eels, and smelt, as well as invertebrates such as worms, squid, and crabs. Young striped bass feed on zooplankton and quickly graduate to freshwater shrimp and midge larvae. Freshwater striped bass prefer shad, herring, minnows, amphipods, and mayflies. There has been controversy over the effect of freshwater stripers on other gamefish, most notably largemouth bass, but bass and other popular sportfish do not appear to be important components in the diet of freshwater stripers.
Feeding times vary, although many anglers believe that stripers are more active nocturnal feeders and are more effective at catching them in low-light conditions and after dark. Stripers are unlike some anadromous fish during their spawning run in that they will feed while migrating to their spawning grounds, although they reportedly cease feeding shortly before spawning.