Where have the Stripers gone?

There’s nothing better than an exciting striped bass strike.

There are many ways to catch them, but regardless of the technique, the connection and fight is always a thrill. It’s no wonder that striped bass are a favorite inshore game fish for anglers along the Atlantic Coast.

Since the passage of the Striped Perch Protection Act in 1984, striped bass have become one of the most widely managed game fish in the world. Congress passed this legislation at a time when the herds were thought to be on the verge of extinction. A coordinated federal and state partnership was created that required coastal states to follow striped bass fishery management plans and amendments developed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Over the following years, striped bass stocks along the coast declined from catastrophically low to astronomically high, and have declined again in recent years. Over the past five years, spawning failures and landings of spawning-size fish have led to emergency actions that have tightened stringent recreational size and bag limits to protect the last few strong yearlings in the Chesapeake Bay and allow them to join the spawning stock. Current regulations are so strict that anglers must fish 3-inch slots that are 28 to 31 inches in diameter to maintain the daily limit of one fish per angler.

The ASMFC Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan is an astonishing collection of charts, graphs, terms and acronyms. The whole process sounds complicated, coming from someone who worked at the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council for nine years. For the average angler, one of the most confusing terms in the plan is “overfishing.” This seems to suggest that fishing mortality is the only culprit in affecting stocks, but in fact scientists take into account a wide range of factors that influence population size to determine whether a stock is overfished, and there are many of them.

Unfortunately, managers have little or no control over most of these stressors, with the exception of fishing mortality, so regardless of the cause of population decline, angler regulation becomes the answer to all problems. This makes anglers look like bad people, even though the overwhelming majority are environmentally minded and quick to accept government efforts to protect fishing grounds.

That said, fishing does have an impact on stocks. Recreational landings and release mortality account for more than 90 percent of total fishing mortality for striped bass. Please note that in most coastal states, commercial fishing has been significantly restricted or eliminated by law.

Under the ASMFC, striped bass are managed as a single stock along the entire coast, but individual states have some flexibility to develop regulations within their jurisdictions if they meet or exceed conservation goals. Some regulations, such as the requirement to use circle hooks when using any type of strip bait, cannot be bypassed.

The role of biology

Striped bass are anadromous, meaning they live in salt water but spawn in fresh water. They can be found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, although the further north and south you go, the less they migrate. The two main producing areas responsible for the bulk of the stock along the entire coast are the Chesapeake Bay complex (interspersed with fish spawning in the Delaware River) and the Hudson River complex.

Historically, the Chesapeake Bay was responsible for producing more than 60 percent of the total coastwide herd, while the Hudson River complex produces about half that amount. However, scientists are beginning to realize that this proportion may change as oceans and estuaries warm. Hudson appears to be taking on the brunt of producing most of the coastal resources.

After spawning, usually between April and June, striped bass leave estuaries and migrate to the northern ocean for summer feeding grounds that can extend as far as Massachusetts, Maine and even southern Canada. As the waters cool and fall approaches, they migrate back to their home estuaries for the winter. Some bass will record round trips of over 1,000 miles per year.

Spawning success is a key part of maintaining a healthy stock, but in the case of passages it is fraught with variables that can make or break the year-round class. Even if the biomass of the spawning stock of large females is low, under ideal environmental conditions there could be a high rate of young this year. The 40-pound female can lay more than 4 million eggs a year, but survival from the egg to the size of a finger in the first six months after spawning becomes increasingly difficult for Chesapeake fish.

Jim Uphoff, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist and striped bass specialist, conducted a review of the bass egg rate and juvenile rate using data from 1955 to 2019. Both indexes are derived from data collected annually and are used to track reproductive success in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. His findings indicate that environmental conditions during and after spawning have a critical impact on the production of juveniles in a given year and therefore on future stock size. In his words: “When habitat conditions support the survival of sea bass larvae and the spawning stock is protected from overfishing, striped bass have the best chance of producing strong yearlings.” But first, the fertilized eggs must survive long enough to reach the larval stage.

From egg to baby bass

Striped bass usually spawn when water temperatures are between 60 and 69 degrees in open areas of freshwater tidal rivers. A recent study by Angela Giuliano, also a Maryland DNR fisheries biologist, looked at the effect of water temperature on the timing and length of the spawning season for striped bass and found a correlation between increased water temperatures and earlier termination of spawning and larval survival.

The first hurdle in the reproductive cycle is the survival of the fertilized egg. A bass egg is quite buoyant, but it will sink without the river current to help it stay afloat. If the current flow is not sufficient to do the job for the 36 to 70 hours it takes for the larva to hatch from the egg, it will sink to the bottom and die. In recent years, there has been reduced or no snowmelt and less than usual spring rainfall, which hampers both water temperatures and current flow, therefore shortening the spawning period and increasing the risk of eggs touching the bottom and dying.

Once the fish has reached its larval stage, it will continue to receive food from the attached egg sac for several weeks. As an aside, another study found that fertilized eggs from older, larger females tend to be more buoyant than eggs from younger bass, which is another reason to protect large breeders.

The next environmental hurdle the little striper faces is providing enough food once the yolk sac is absorbed. Environmental conditions such as water turbidity, pollution and pH can reduce the presence of microorganisms on which sea bass larvae feed. If they lack a food source, fewer individuals will survive these crucial early life stages. Problems related to the survival of eggs, larvae and fingerlings are compounded by acidification and chemicals from runoff from farms and cities.

One of the most reliable indicators of spawning success in the Chesapeake is the Maryland Young Striped Bass Index, also called the Juvenile of the Year (YOY) index, which began in 1954. Over time, the long-term arithmetic average, determined by the number of juvenile striped bass caught per tow of the towing purse seiner at specific places and at specific times, amounted to 11.1. However, YOY for 2019-2022 remained below 4, and in 2023 it stood at a dismal 1. This marks the longest decline in Chesapeake spawning success since the 1980s, when the stock was thought to be collapsing.

Read further: Chasing striped bass through New Jersey swamps

It’s not all bad news

One factor that bodes well for the Chesapeake is the continued high biomass of female spawning stock (SSB). These large fish – all bass over 25 pounds are female – are protected by current fishing regulations.

There may be another bright spot.

Although the Chesapeake Strait did not contribute to desired levels of coastal stock growth, the Hudson Complex posted consistently strong year-over-year performance, with the exception of 2023, which was well below average. New Jersey and New York anglers were the beneficiaries of this success with what many consider to be the best striped bass fishing this region has ever experienced. Furthermore, striped bass of all sizes and classes appear to be present.

Increasing numbers of stripers are spawning in rivers farther north, including Canada’s Miramichi River and other coastal rivers in the Maritime Provinces.

While all of this is taking place, the fishing community up and down the coast continues to understand and support current recreational fishing regulations. In fact, many anglers go beyond the rules by releasing all the striped bass. The fishing community can only hope that managers and the knowledge they use in their decision-making processes prevail in the pursuit of a healthy striped bass fishery.