Striped bass

Striped Bass

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Striped bass

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis, also called rock or rockfish) is the state fish

List of U.S. state fish

This is a list of official and *unofficial U.S. state fish:The only states lacking a state fish as of 2008 are Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio....
of Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic States of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the Washington, D.C. to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east....
, Rhode Island

Rhode Island

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a U.S. state in the New England region of the United States....
, South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a U.S. state in the Southern United States of the United States. It borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north....
, and the state Saltwater (marine) fish of New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
.

striped bass is a typical member of the Moronidae

Moronidae

Moronidae, also known as the "temperate basses", is a family of perciform fish consisting of 6 freshwater and marine species. Similar to Acropomatidae, Moronidae fish are most commonly found near the coastal regions of eastern North America and Europe....
family in shape, having a streamlined, silvery body marked with longitudinal dark stripes running from behind the gills to the base of the tail. Maximum size is 200 cm (6.6 ft) and maximum scientifically recorded weight 57 kg (125 US pounds).

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Encyclopedia

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis, also called rock or rockfish) is the state fish

List of U.S. state fish

This is a list of official and *unofficial U.S. state fish:The only states lacking a state fish as of 2008 are Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, and Ohio....
of Maryland

Maryland

Rhode Island

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a U.S. state in the New England region of the United States....
, South Carolina

South Carolina

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
.

Morphology and lifespan

The striped bass is a typical member of the Moronidae

Moronidae

Distribution

Natural distribution

Striped bass are native to the Atlantic coastline of North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
from the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of to approximately Louisiana

Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
. They are anadromous fish that migrate between fresh and salt water. Spawning takes place in fresh water.

Introductions outside their natural range

Striped 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

American gizzard shad

The American gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, is a fish of the herring family Clupeidae native to fresh and salt waters of eastern North America....
. These include: Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico; Lake Ouachita

Lake Ouachita

Lake Ouachita is a lake created by the damming of the Ouachita River by Blakely Mountain Dam . The lake is located near Hot Springs, Arkansas. Lake Ouachita is the largest lake completely in Arkansas, as the larger Bull Shoals Lake extends into Missouri....
, Lake Norfork, Beaver Lake and Lake Hamilton

Lake Hamilton

Lake Hamilton may refer to:in the United States* Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine, a pair of lakes in Arkansas* Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, a community on Lake Hamilton...
in Arkansas; Lake Powell

Lake Powell

Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River , straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,000 acre feet of water when full....
, Lake Pleasant

Lake Pleasant Regional Park

Lake Pleasant Regional Park is a large outdoors recreation area straddling the Maricopa County and Yavapai County county border in Arizona. The park is located within the municipal boundaries of Peoria, Arizona and serves as a major recreation hub for the northwest Phoenix metropolitan area....
, and Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the lake's eastern shore....
in Arizona; Castaic Lake, Pyramid Lake

Pyramid Lake (California)

Pyramid Lake is a lake formed by Pyramid Dam on Piru Creek, near Castaic, California. The 180,000 acre-foot reservoir is in the southern portion of the Los Padres National Forest in the northwest corner of Los Angeles County, California....
, Silverwood Lake

Silverwood Lake

Silverwood Lake is a large reservoir in San Bernardino County, California, located on the west fork of the Mojave River in the San Bernardino Mountains....
, Diamond Valley Lake

Diamond Valley Lake

Built in the saddle of two mountains, Diamond Valley Lake-- Southern California?s newest and largest reservoir -- is a vital link in the regional system that?s brought water to Southern California for the past 60 years....
, Lake Cumberland

Lake Cumberland

Lake Cumberland is an artificial lake in Clinton County, Kentucky, Laurel County, Kentucky, McCreary County, Kentucky, Pulaski County, Kentucky, Russell County, Kentucky, and Wayne County, Kentucky counties in Kentucky....
, and Lake Murray in California; Reelfoot Lake

Reelfoot Lake

Reelfoot Lake is a shallow natural lake located in the northwest portion of Tennessee and extending into Fulton County, Kentucky, United States of America....
, Tennessee; and Lake Mead

Lake Mead

Lake Mead is the largest man-made lake and reservoir in the United States. It is located on the Colorado River about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona....
, Nevada; and in Texas, Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoir in the United States, the 12th largest US Army Corps of Engineers lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District....
, Lake Tawakoni

Lake Tawakoni

Lake Tawakoni is an artificial reservoir located approximately 53 miles east of Dallas, Texas, 25 miles southeast of Greenville, Texas, and 21 miles northeast of Wills Point, Texas....
, Lake Whitney

Lake Whitney (Texas)

Lake Whitney is the only flood control reservoir on the main stem of the Brazos River in the state of Texas. It is located on River Mile Marker 442 and controls drainage for of Texas and parts of New Mexico....
, Possum Kingdom Lake

Possum Kingdom Lake

Possum Kingdom Lake , located primarily in Palo_Pinto_County%2C_TX Texas, is a 20,000 acre lake on the Brazos River in the Palo Pinto Mountains, known for its clear blue waters....
, and Lake Buchanan.

Striped bass have also been introduced into waters in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west....
, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
, and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
primarily for sport fishing and aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture is the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms including molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Unlike fishing, aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, implies the cultivation of aquatic populations under controlled conditions....
.

Environmental factors

The spawning

Spawn (biology)

Spawning is the production or depositing of large quantities of egg s in water. The process is done by marine animals such as amphibians and fish....
success of striped bass has been studied in the San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean....
-Delta water system, with a finding that high total dissolved solids

Total dissolved solids

Total Dissolved Solids is an expression for the combined content of all inorganic and organic compound substances contained in a liquid which are present in a molecular, ionized or micro-granular suspended form....
(TDS) reduce spawning. At levels as low as 200 mg/L TDS there is an observable diminution of spawning productivity.

President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition....
George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
in an Executive Order on October 20, 2007 designated the Striped Bass as a protected game fish. This prohibits sale of Striped Bass caught in Federal waters and encourages states to consider designating Striped Bass as a protected game fish within state waters.

Life cycle

Striped bass spawn in freshwater 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

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia....
, Massachusetts Bay

Massachusetts Bay

Massachusetts Bay is one of the large headlands and bays of the Atlantic Ocean that form the distinctive shape of the coastline of the U.S. state of Massachusetts....
/Cape Cod

Cape Cod

Cape Cod, often referred to as simply the Cape, is a peninsula in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States....
, Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk , the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami, Muhheakantuck, is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York....
and Delaware River

Delaware River

The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States.The Delaware was explored by Adriaen Block as part of the New Netherlands Colony, and was named the South River to mark the southernmost reach of that colony....
. 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. There are very few successful spawning populations of freshwater striped bass, including Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma is one of the largest reservoir in the United States, the 12th largest US Army Corps of Engineers lake, and the largest in USACE Tulsa District....
and the Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast and traverses the U.S....
as well as Lake Marion (South Carolina)

Lake Marion (South Carolina)

Lake Marion is the largest lake in South Carolina, with a shoreline and covering nearly of land....
that retained a landlocked breeding population when the dam was built; other freshwater fisheries must be restocked with hatchery-produced fish on an annual basis.

Hybrids with other bass
Moronidae

Moronidae, also known as the "temperate basses", is a family of perciform fish consisting of 6 freshwater and marine species. Similar to Acropomatidae, Moronidae fish are most commonly found near the coastal regions of eastern North America and Europe....

Striped bass have also been hybridized with white bass

White bass

The white bass or sand bass is a freshwater fish of the temperate bass family Moronidae. It is the state fish of Oklahoma. White Bass are unrelated to the black basses, which are members of the Centrarchidae family....
to produce hybrid striped bass

Hybrid striped bass

A hybrid striped bass or a wiper is a Hybrid between the striped bass and the white bass . It can be distinguished from the striped bass by broken rather than solid horizontal stripes on the body....
also known as sunshine bass, palmetto bass, or wiper with the white perch

White perch

The white perch, Morone americana, is not a true Percidae but is, rather, a fish of the temperate bass family Moronidae, notable as a food and game fish in eastern North America....
to produce white perch hybrid also known as Virginia bass or Maryland bass; and yellow bass

Yellow bass

The yellow bass or barfish, Morone mississippiensis, is a freshwater fish native to the south and midwestern United States. Though sometimes confused with white bass or striped bass, it is distinguished by its yellow belly and the broken pattern in its lowermost stripes....
to produce paradise bass. These hybrids have been stocked in many freshwater areas across the U.S.

Fishing for striped bass

Striped bass are of significant value as sport fishing, and have been introduced to many waterways outside their natural range. A variety of angling

Angling

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" .The hook is usually attached by a fishing line to a fishing rod. A Float such as a Float is sometimes used....
methods are used, including trolling

Troll (angling)

Trolling is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with fishing lure or bait fish, are drawn through the water. This may be behind a moving boat, or by slowly winding the line in when fishing from a static position, or even sweeping the line from side-to-side, eg when fishing from a jetty....
and surfcasting

Surf fishing

Surf fishing is the sport of catching fish standing on the shoreline or wading in the surf zone. A general term, surf fishing may or may not include casting a lure or bait, and refers to all types of shore fishing - from sandy and rocky beaches, Jetty, or even Pier....
. Striped bass will take a number of live and fresh baits including bunker

Atlantic menhaden

The Atlantic menhaden is a silvery, highly compressed fish in the herring family, Clupeidae. A filter feeder, it lives on plankton caught in midwater....
, clams

CLaMS

CLaMS is a modular chemistry transport model system developed at J?lich Research Centre, Germany. CLaMS was first described by McKenna et al and was expanded into three dimensions by Konopka et al ....
, sandworms, bloodworms, and mackerel

Mackerel

Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They occur in all tropical and temperate seas....
. The largest striped bass ever caught by angling was a 35.6 kg (78.5 lb) specimen taken in Atlantic City, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
on September 21, 1982.

Striped bass

Morphology and lifespan

Distribution

Natural distribution

Introductions outside their natural range

Environmental factors

Life cycle

Hybrids with other bassMoronidaeMoronidae, also known as the "temperate basses", is a family of perciform fish consisting of 6 freshwater and marine species. Similar to Acropomatidae, Moronidae fish are most commonly found near the coastal regions of eastern North America and Europe....

Fishing for striped bass

External links

Hybrids with other bass
Moronidae

Moronidae, also known as the "temperate basses", is a family of perciform fish consisting of 6 freshwater and marine species. Similar to Acropomatidae, Moronidae fish are most commonly found near the coastal regions of eastern North America and Europe....