Striped bass facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Striped bass
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Moronidae
Genus:	Morone
Species:	M. saxatilis
Binomial name
Morone saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792)
Southern coastal range in yellow (also further north along the Atlantic coast and inland in North America)
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The striped bass (Morone saxatilis) is a cool fish found mostly along the Atlantic coast of North America. People also call it a linesider or rockfish because of the stripes on its body. This fish is special because it's anadromous, meaning it lives in both fresh and salt water.

Striped bass have been introduced to many places across the United States. This was done for fun fishing and to help control other fish populations. Some striped bass found in the Gulf of Mexico are a different kind.

This fish is so important that it's the official state fish for Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. It's also the state saltwater fish for New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and New Hampshire. People have been fishing for striped bass in North America for a very long time, even since the first European settlers arrived. They wrote about how many striped bass there were in the rivers back then!

Appearance and Life Cycle

The striped bass has a sleek, silver body with dark stripes running from its gills to its tail. It looks like a typical fish from its family.

Most adult striped bass weigh between 20 to 40 pounds (9 to 18 kg). The biggest one ever caught was 124 pounds (56 kg) in 1896! These fish can live for up to 30 years. On average, they are about 20 to 35 inches (50 to 89 cm) long and weigh 5 to 20 pounds (2 to 9 kg).

Where Striped Bass Live

A researcher holding up a large striped bass

Natural Homes

Striped bass naturally live along the Atlantic coast of North America. Their home stretches from the Saint Lawrence River all the way down to Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

They are anadromous fish. This means they travel between fresh water and salt water. They always go back to fresh water to lay their eggs.

New Homes

People have moved striped bass to new places outside their natural range. This was done for two main reasons:

• To create more places for fun sport fishing.
• To help control populations of other fish, like gizzard shad, in large lakes and reservoirs.

You can now find striped bass in many big lakes across the United States. Some examples include Lake Ouachita in Arkansas, Lake Pleasant in Arizona, and Lake Texoma in Oklahoma.

They have also been introduced to countries like Ecuador, Mexico, and South Africa. This is mainly for sport fishing and fish farming.

Environment and Protection

The success of striped bass laying eggs can be affected by the water quality. For example, too many dissolved solids in the water can make it harder for them to reproduce. They can live in lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands.

In the past, the number of striped bass grew quickly in the 1980s and 1990s. However, this big population started eating too many of their prey fish, like river herring and shad. This put the striped bass population at risk because their food source was shrinking.

To protect them, the United States made the striped bass a protected game fish in 2007. This means it's against the law to sell striped bass caught in federal waters along the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico.

In Canada, the striped bass population in the Saint Lawrence River disappeared by 1996. This was likely due to too much fishing and dredging (digging up the riverbed). But a program to bring them back started in 2002 and has been successful!

Reproduction and Life Cycle

A striped bass caught off the New Jersey coast

Preserved specimen

X-ray image

Striped bass lay their eggs in fresh water. Even though some have learned to live only in fresh water, they naturally spend their adult lives in salt water.

Some important places where striped bass breed are:

• Chesapeake Bay
• Massachusetts Bay/Cape Cod
• Hudson River
• Delaware River

The Chesapeake Bay is one of the biggest breeding areas. Many rivers and streams that flow into the Atlantic used to have breeding striped bass until the 1860s.

A few places have freshwater striped bass that can reproduce on their own. These include Lake Texoma, the Colorado River, and the Arkansas River. Most other freshwater striped bass populations need new fish added from hatcheries every year.

Predators

When striped bass are just starting their lives, they are very small and vulnerable. This means they have many more predators than when they grow bigger.

Many types of smaller fish, like perch, sunfish, and even other larger striped bass (sometimes bigger fish will eat smaller fish of their own kind!), will prey on young striped bass. Birds that hunt near the water, such as ospreys, gulls, and cormorants, are always on the lookout for an easy meal. Ospreys are especially good at diving feet-first into the water to snatch fish.

In their early stages, when they are very tiny, young striped bass can also be eaten by larger crabs or other bottom-dwelling creatures in their shallow nursery habitats.

As striped bass grow larger, they become strong swimmers and are much harder to catch. This means they have fewer natural predators, but they still need to be careful! Several species of sharks, such as sand tiger sharks, bull sharks, and even larger great white sharks, are powerful predators that can hunt adult striped bass. Sharks are top predators in the ocean and are known for their incredible sense of smell and powerful jaws.

Fast-swimming fish like bluefin tuna, which are much larger and quicker, can also prey on adult striped bass, especially when they are schooling together in the open ocean. While bluefish can also be prey for striped bass, larger bluefish are known to hunt and eat smaller or even medium-sized striped bass. They are aggressive hunters with sharp teeth!

Different types of seals, like harbor seals and grey seals, are opportunistic hunters. This means they will eat whatever fish are available and easy to catch, including striped bass.

Hybrid Bass

Striped bass can be bred with other fish, like white bass. This creates a new kind of fish called a hybrid striped bass. These hybrids are also known as wiper or sunshine bass. They are often put into freshwater lakes across the U.S. for fishing.

Fishing for Striped Bass

Striped bass are very popular for sport fishing. People use many different ways to catch them. Some popular methods include:

• Trolling: Pulling lures behind a boat.
• Surf casting: Casting from the beach, often with lures that float on the surface.
• Bait casting: Using live or dead bait.

Striped bass will eat many kinds of bait, like bunker, clams, eels, and herring.

The biggest striped bass ever caught by a fisherman weighed 81.88 pounds (37.14 kg)! It was caught in Long Island Sound, Connecticut, in 2011 by Gregory Myerson. It took him 20 minutes to reel in the huge fish. This fish was 54 inches (137 cm) long!

The rules for how many striped bass a person can catch vary by state.

Landlocked Striped Bass

Since striped bass travel up rivers to lay eggs, some got "landlocked" when dams were built. This happened at the Santee-Cooper River in South Carolina. Because of this, the striped bass is South Carolina's state game fish.

Biologists now think that some striped bass stay in rivers for a long time. They might not go back to the sea unless the water temperature changes. When fishermen and scientists noticed more striped bass in lakes, many states started stocking them there.

Even landlocked striped bass try to swim upstream to lay eggs during spawning season. It's hard for them to reproduce naturally in lakes. One of the most successful places where landlocked striped bass reproduce on their own is the Coosa River in Alabama and Georgia.

A huge landlocked bass weighing 70.6 pounds (32.0 kg) was caught in Alabama in 2013. This is a world record for a landlocked bass!

Managing Striped Bass

The number of striped bass dropped to less than 5 million by 1982. But thanks to efforts by fishermen (who released smaller fish) and special programs, the population grew back. By 2007, there were almost 56 million fish!

In 2006, fishermen caught a record 3.8 million striped bass. To manage the species, there are rules about:

• How big a fish must be to keep it.
• How many fish commercial fishermen can catch.
• Healthy population goals for the species.

In 2019, experts found that the striped bass population was being overfished. This led to some states closing the trophy fishing season to help the fish recover. Another way to help them is to bring them back to their original spawning areas in coastal rivers.

Striped Bass as Food

Striped bass brisket with a lima-fava bean puree

Striped bass has white meat that tastes mild and has a medium texture. It's a very flexible fish to cook! You can:

• Pan-sear it
• Grill it
• Steam it
• Roast it
• Broil it
• Sauté it
• Deep fry it

You can also eat the meat raw or pickled.

You can buy fresh striped bass all year round. It's usually sold whole, as fillets (boneless pieces), or as loins. It's a popular fish in beach towns because it's easy to grill.

See also

In Spanish: Lubina rayada atlántica para niños