DESCRIPTION OF BLACK SEA BASS, CENTROPRISTIS STRIATA 



(LINNAEUS), LARVAE AND THEIR OCCURRENCES NORTH 



OF CAPE LOOKOUT, NORTH CAROLINA, IN 1966 



Arthur W. Kendall, Jr.^ 



ABSTRACT 



Larvae of black sea bass collected during RV Dolphin ichthyoplankton surveys of the mid- 

 Atlantic continental shelf are described. Development of most meristic characters occurs 

 between 6 and 10 mm standard length. The larvae are identified by characteristic ventral 

 pigment patterns, body shape, meristic counts, and lack of extensive armature. The 147 

 larvae were taken during cruises from June to November 1966, from 4 to 82 km from 

 shore. They were found in tows from the surface to 33 m in water varying in surface 

 temperature from 14.3° to 28.0°C and surface salinity from 30.3 to 34.6^.. 



Black sea bass are of considerable economic im- 

 portance and occur along most of the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States, Although they were 

 first studied in the late 1800's little is reported 

 on their early life history. Spawning is reported 

 to take place in May off North Carolina and in 

 mid-May and June off New Jersey and southern 

 New England (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953; 

 Miller, 1959). Wilson (1891) described their 

 embryology as part of an incomplete monograph 

 on the species but did not describe the larvae or 

 provide diagnostic characteristics to identify 

 eggs. Hoff (1970) figured a black sea bass egg 

 and prolarva from artificially reared specimens 

 but gave no written description (Figure 1). The 

 eggs are pelagic, clear, round, and 0.9 to 1.0 mm 

 in diameter. They have a smooth shell, narrow 

 perivitelline space, and a single oil globule. They 

 hatch in 75 hr at 16°C and in 38 hr at 23°C 

 (Wilson, 1891; Hoff, 1970). The larvae re- 

 main inadequately described although Pearson 

 (1941) identified specimens collected at the 

 mouth of Chesapeake Bay as black sea bass by 

 comparing them with a known series from south- 

 ern New England using the ventral pigment 

 pattern and fin ray counts. Apparently Merri- 



' National Marine Fisheries Service, Middle Atlantic 

 Coastal Fisheries Center, Sandy Hook Laboratory, High- 

 land, NJ 07732. 



man and Sclar (1952) had access to the same 

 or similar specimens as Pearson because they 

 pointed out differences between black sea bass 

 and silver hake, Merluccius bilinearis, larvae. 

 0. E. Sette's notes, made in connection with his 

 work on Atlantic mackerel, Scomber scomhrus, 

 early life history contained a mention of black 

 sea bass in a description of bluefish, Pomatomus 

 saltatrix, larvae. Larvae of black sea bass have 

 been identified from other collections of ichthyo- 

 plankton along the east coast of North America 

 (Perlmutter, 1939; Herman, 1963) with no ref- 

 erence to means of identification. Figures of 

 juveniles, ranging from 39 to 58 mm total length 

 (TL), are shown in Bean (1888), Hildebrand 

 and Schroeder (1928), and Fowler (1945) and 

 reproduced here (Figure 2). 



Three species of Centropristis occur along the 

 Atlantic coast; C. striata is the most widespread 

 and occurs from the Gulf of Maine to the Florida 

 Keys (Miller, 1959). Rock sea bass, C. phila- 

 delphica, occurs along the Atlantic coast south 

 of Chesapeake Bay, and bank sea bass, C. ocyur- 

 us, is found generally offshore south of Cape 

 Hatteras. All three species also occur in the 

 Gulf of Mexico, C. striata as the subspecies C. s. 

 melana (southern sea bass). Black sea bass 

 generally occur over hard bottoms and migrate 

 along the middle Atlantic coast shoreward and 

 northward in summer and oflfshore and south in 



Manuscript accepted May 1972. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL, 70, NO. 4, 1972. 



1243 



