Striped Bass

Striped bass are managed from Maine to North Carolina by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission(ASMFC) under the guidance of the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act and Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Management Act.   Adult striped bass live in the ocean for most of the year, spending the summer generally off the New England coastline and the winter off the Mid –Atlantic. The adults migrate up their natal river in the spring to spawn.  After spawning, the young migrate to the estuary at the mouth of the natal river and spend several years there. They begin migrating to the ocean to join the adult stock at about age 5 and are mostly gone from the bays and estuaries by age 7.  This coastal stock moves up the Atlantic coast in the summer and back south during the winter.

Management agencies use juvenile index or Young of Year(YOY) surveys to track spawning success, and recruitment from year to year, and periods of both low and high recruitment are the norm. Conditions have to be near perfect for stripers to have a successful spawn and generate an above-average year class, which is why they have evolved to live 25-plus years – to withstand several years of below average recruitment. This coastal stock is subject to intense fishing pressure as it moves up and down the Atlantic coast, right next to the most populous coastal areas in the country.