The flavor of a striper fillet is mild and sweet without the strong fishy flavor of a salmon or anchovy. As stripers grow in size, their bodies accumulate mercury, PCBs, and other toxic chemicals. The Food and Drug Administration recommends only 1 serving per week of striped bass rockfish. Stripers have seven horizontal lines along their body and black sea bass have dark gray and black scales, hence their name.
After reaching sexual maturity, stripers return to rivers and bays in the spring to spawn. There are many lakes and reservoirs in the U.
Today, the commercial and recreational fishing of striped bass is a multi-billion dollar industry. But it is an industry, which has come perilously close to collapse. As early as the mid-eighteenth century, striped bass populations along the East Coast had been known to crash suddenly and dramatically. Regulations and prohibitions against winter fishing or sale of striped bass went into effect in New York in and in Massachusetts in By the mid-nineteenth century, a pattern of decline was beginning to become evident in spots throughout New England, despite abundant stocks elsewhere.
By the late nineteenth century, the number of stripers all along the Northeast Coast had fallen dramatically. The turn of the twentieth century saw the days of abundant striped bass become a distant memory.
While no one can be certain as to the cause of this catastrophic decline, a number of factors stand out. As the United States grew into an industrial giant during the course of the nineteenth century, the coastline from the Mid-Atlantic States to Maine became increasing developed. This lead to an inevitable loss of critical spawning and nursery habitatby the construction of dams.
Pollution, particularly raw sewerage dumped directly into rivers by the growing populations of eastern seaboard cities, was also very likely a factor. But it was almost certainly overfishing that did the greatest damage to striped bass stocks. From the earliest days, mortality from fishing outstripped their ability to reproduce. That it took over two hundred years to nearly fish them out is testament to their previously enormous abundance.
Striped bass were originally found along the east coast from the St. Lawrence, and on the gulf coast, in the Apalachicola River. South of the Mid-Atlantic States, striped bass spend most of their time in rivers during summer when water temperatures are high in tidally influenced saltwater sections of the river and move into tidally influenced sections when water temperatures drop. The West Coast has an established population, having been introduced into California as an exotic species in the late nineteenth century.
Landlocked populations have also been established in thirty-one states across the country. The largest concentrations of striped bass are found in the area from the Mid-Atlantic States through southern New England, ranging from North Carolina to the southern Gulf of Maine. The Chesapeake Bay area is by far the single most important spawning ground for striped bass. The broad, shallow bay itself is a fertile feeding ground for juvenile rockfish. Both historically and currently, the bay provides 70 to 80 percent of the east coast migratory population when abundance is high.
The Hudson River contributes an additional 10 percent and the Delaware Bay area around 20 percent. Since striped bass rely so heavily on Chesapeake Bay during the critical early stages of their lives, protection of this vital habitat has been a key factor in establishing healthy population levels.
Striped bass is somewhat of a mystery fish. Much of its complex behavior was poorly understood until recently. Much remains unclear. The striped bass is an anadromous fish, meaning it migrates from salt water to fresh water for spawning. They undertake long migrations south along the Atlantic coast to spawn each spring and migrate north along the coast during warmer summer months.
They appear in Rhode Island during these northern summer migrations after spawning. Many of the individuals seen seasonally in New England waters are believed to have originated in the fresh waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Hudson River. Save The Bay, Striped bass caught in a fishing net. The skin should be moist with tightly adhering, shiny scales. Fresh bass flesh will give slightly when you press it with a finger, then spring back into shape.
Species Range Source: Fishbase. Rod and Reel This fishery uses a rod, reel and lure or baited hook trailed behind a vessel at low speed to catch fish. Bottom Trawl This fishery uses a large cone-shaped net that is dragged along the seafloor to catch fish. Ahoy there! Source: Fishbase. Bass Rockfish Striper Linesides.
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