STUDIES ON THE STRIPED BASS OF THE ATLANTIC COAST 33 



Only measurements which came from reliable sources were included in this graph, 

 and the great majority were on fish that were taken at or near the point of release by 

 the author; hence the growth rates refer mainly to fish in Connecticut waters. The 

 lines connecting any two points in this figure of course only represent the total growth 

 in the period intervening between release and recapture. The growths of these 

 individual tagged fish over different lengths of time and in different seasons of the 

 year check well with the growth rates calculated from other material, and in general 

 substantiate the previously discussed information on the growth of the striped bass. 

 It will be noted that the fastest growths occurred in the small fish (2 years old) in 

 the late summer and early fall of 1936, that the growth rates were slow during the 

 winter of 1936-37 (these measurements were in all probability mainly on individuals 

 that wintered in the north), that the growth rates picked up again in the summer of 

 1937, and that they slowed down once more during the winter of 1937-38. The 

 normally faster growth rate of the 2-year-olds is also indicated by the relative steep- 

 ness of the lines in the smaller size categories. 



MIGRATIONS 



There have been no accounts in the literature of the migrations of the striped 

 bass on the Atlantic coast until the present investigation," with the exception of 

 Pearson's (1933) brief paper which was limited to the movements of bass within 

 Chesapeake Bay. There was, however, much evidence to show that this species 

 makes seasonal movements of considerable magnitude. Thus the examination of 

 catch records of commercial fishermen over a period of years at Montauk, Long 

 Island, N. Y., and Newport and Point Judith, R. I., shows that striped bass are 

 caught in large quantities as a general rule only in the spring and fall of the year. 

 This is shown in figure 24, where the bulk of the pound-net catches at Fort Pond 

 Bay, Long Island, N. Y., from 1884 to 1928, were made either in May or October and 

 November. It is also generally known that the date of capture of striped bass along 

 the coast of the Middle and North Atlantic States by pound-nets and seines in great 

 numbers in the spring is progressively later the farther north these catches are made. 

 Moreover, the reverse is true in the fall; for example, the mam catch at Point Judith, 

 R. I., regularly preceds the time that the fishermen on the south side of Long Island 

 make their biggest hauls. It therefore appeared logical to suppose that striped bass 

 undertake definite coastal migrations to the north and cast in the spring, and to the 

 south and west in the fall. Various tagging experiments to demonstrate the time and 

 extent of these migrations have been carried out during the entire course of the 

 investigation. The results of these taggings are summarized in tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 

 and 22. 



Two methods of tagging have been earned on. External disc tags have been 

 used the greater part of the time, and internal belly tags have also been tried on 

 juvenile and yearling striped bass. Both of these tags were used at the suggestion 

 of Mr. Robert A. Nesbit, of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. The external disc 

 tag is actually a modification of the Scottish Plaice Label, the main changes consisting 

 of reduced dimensions, the use of celluloid instead of hard rubber, the addition of 

 printing, and the substitution of nickel pins for silver wire as the method of attachment. 

 Sketches illustrating these methods of tagging are shown in figure 25. Scale samples 

 were taken in most cases, and lengths and the dates and localities of release were 

 always recorded on all striped bass that were tagged. 



The external disc tag proved to be a fairly efficient and practical means of marking 

 striped bass. A single tag of this type consisted of two discs of bright red (DuPont 

 No. 6671) celluloid, each 0.025 inch in thickness and one-half inch in diameter, with 

 a center hole ^2-inch in diameter. Each pair of discs bore the same number in black 

 print across the middle, and the necessary instructions to insure their return were 

 printed in black around the circumference. The discs were made by printing on 

 0.020-inch opaque celluloid and cementing onto the side bearing the printing a 



" In California, however , tagging experiments on the striped bass have shown that there were "... no definite migrations, 

 simply a diffusion from the locality In which the bass were tagged" (Clark, 1936). 



