STUDIES ON THE STRIPED BASS OF THE ATLANTIC COAST 5 



This fish is strictly coastwise in its distribution, and records of its being taken 

 more than several miles offshore are extremely rare. It is most commonly taken in 

 salt water, but, since it is anadromous, its capture in brackish and even fresh water 

 is a regular occurrence — particularly during the winter and spring months. It has 

 been taken in the Hudson River as far north as Albany, and is caught in large quan- 

 tities in the Roanoke River at Weldon, N. C, each spring. Temperature appears 

 to play no little part in its distribution (see p. 42), yet the striped bass can be taken 

 at the extreme limits of its range throughout the year. 



REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON THE LIFE HISTORY OF 



THE STRIPED BASS 



Mention of the striped bass appears early in American literature. This is un- 

 doubtedly because of its great abundance in times past and its coastal distribution —  

 two factors that made it easily available to the early colonists. 



Capt. John Smith wrote: 



The Basse is an excellent fish, both fresh & sake . . . They are so large, the head of one will 

 give a good eater a dinner, & for daintinesse of diet they excell the Marybones of Beefe. There are 

 such multitudes that I have seen stopped in the river close adjoining to my house with a sandc at- 

 one tide as many as will loade a ship of 100 tonnes (Jordan and Evermann, 1905). 



And one of Captain Smith's contemporary divines wrote: 



There is a Fish called a Basse, a most sweet & wholesome Fish as ever I did eat . . ... the 

 season of their coming was begun when we came first to New England in June and so continued 

 about three months space. Of this Fish our Fishers take many hundreds together, which I have 

 scene lying on the shore to my admiration . . . (Jordan and Evermann, 1905). 



William Wood in his New England's Prospect (1635) wrote: 



The Basse is one of the best fishes in the country . . . the way to catch them is with hooke 

 and line: the Fisherman taking a great cod-line, to which he fasteneth a pcece of Lobster, and 

 throwes it into the sea, the fish biting at it he pulls her to him, and knockes her on the head with 

 a sticke. . . . the English at the top of an high water doe crosse the creekes with long seanes or 

 Basse netts, which stop in the fish; and the water ebbing from them they are left on dry ground, 

 sometimes two or three thousand at a set . . . 



Such references to the striped bass became increasingly common in the eighteenth 

 and nineteenth centuries, all of them dealing with record catches or the abundance of 

 this species, and extolling the virtues of the bass as a game and food fish. Probably 

 the earliest observations of any consequence on any phase of the life history are those 

 by S. G. Worth, who published a series of papers from 1881 to 1912 on the spawning 

 habits and artificial propagation of the striped bass in the Roanoke River, N. C. 

 (See under section on spawning habits and early life history.) Turning to more 

 modern times, mention is made of the striped bass frequently, but in all the literature 

 dealing with the fishes of the Atlantic coast there is scant information on the life 

 history of this species. Such standard and well-recognized references as Bigelow 

 and Welsh (1925) and Ilildcbrand and Schroeder (1928), sum up the available knowl- 

 edge on the striped bass in a few brief pages. In the past few years, however, the 

 need for further information on this species on the Atlantic coast has resulted in 

 several investigations in different localities, apart from the present work. These 

 have given rise to much interesting material and more general knowledge (e. g., see 

 Vladykov and Wallace, 1937), a great deal of which, however, is yet to be published. 

 Reference to some of this work is made in the following pages. 



In the last quarter of the nineteenth century striped bass were introduced on the 

 Pacific coast, where they prospered beyond all expectations and soon became the 

 object of an intensive and prosperous fishery conducted by both commercial and sport 

 fishermen. This fishery has been of great importance ever since. The story of this 

 introduction of the striped bass to the Pacific coast is particularly interesting (Throck- 

 morton, 1882; Scofield, 1931, etc.). In 1879 and 18S1 a number of yearling bass were 

 seined in New Jersey, taken across the continent in tanks by train, and planted in 

 San Francisco Bav. A total of only 435 striped bass survived the rigors of these 2 

 trips. Yet by 1889, 10 years after the first plant, they were caught in gill nets and 

 offered for sale, and in 1899 the commercial net catch alone was 1,234,000 pounds. 



