Research Document - 1999/007

Striped bass stocking programs in the United States: ecological and resource management issues.

By R.A. Rulifson and R.W. Laney

Abstract

The striped bass (Morone saxatilis) has been an important commercial, recreational and socio-economic resource along the U.S. eastern seaboard since earliest colonial times. The first colony resource laws, written in 1639, addressed conserving the striped bass resource. Concerns about population declines in the late 1800s resulted in the first attempts to culture striped bass in a manner similar to that for American shad, Alosa sapidissima. The Roanoke River population in North Carolina served as the original strain for culture beginning in 1884, and for many years eggs, fry and fingerlings of Roanoke origin were stocked in watersheds throughout the eastern seaboard and along the Gulf of Mexico. These fish were used for stock enhancement and for stock restoration programs. In the 1980s, concern about collapse of populations throughout the range, and preserving any remaining genetic integrity of striped bass populations, led the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to endorse a large culture and stocking program of Age 0 fish. Brood fish from "natal rivers" were used, with progeny returned to the watershed of the brood parentage. However, the 100+-year-old practice of cross-stocking young and adults, and the continued practice of cross-stocking at the state level, have resulted in the introgression of non-endemic genetic strains to many striped bass populations along the east and Gulf coasts. Effects of this long-standing practice remain undocumented and unquantified. This manuscript documents the use of these strains for population rebuilding and maintenance programs, and addresses issues concerning survival of stocked fish, implications of ecological incompatibility of cross-stocked fish, and management problems associated with these issues.

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