Managing Striped Bass

In response to our November 1993 Spotlight story, "Striped Bass Success Story: A Model for Fisheries Management," we received the article below highlighting the important role of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in bringing back the striped bass.

By Linda Andreasen
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

For the Fish and Wildlife Service, the success of the Striped Bass program comes as a profound reward for many years of research and effort. The Service began work on striped bass restoration in 1985. Under the Emergency Striped Bass Restoration Act, Congress designated the Service as lead federal agency to determine the cause of the fishery's decline.

Towards that end, water quality problems on spawning grounds were evaluated. Concurrently, a coast-wide striped bass tagging and hatchery program was initiated to estimate rates of exploitation and natural mortality, and to determine if hatchery-reared fish could supplement wild stocks in severely depleted rivers.

A central database, designed and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, stores coast-wide stocking information, fishery dependent and independent survey data, and migratory data from tag returns, upon which management decisions have been based.

Since 1984, nearly 8 million marked hatchery-reared striped bass fingerlings have been released into the wild. In 1988, hatchery fish comprised 50% of Maryland young-of-the-year striped bass in some rivers. Today, as hoped, hatchery fish are far outnumbered by wild fish. While evaluation studies continue on the potential contribution of hatchery fish to depleted wild stocks, hatchery-reared striped bass marked with coded wire tags are used primarily to gather information on population dynamics and migratory patterns to answer management questions.

The Service, encouraged by the success of the striped bass program and the increased support from ASMFC in enforcing management plans, is beginning restoration work on coastal populations of American shad and Atlantic sturgeon.

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