52 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



in New York and Maryland are compared in certain years from 1887 to 1935. (The 

 material for this figure is taken from the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries canvass, and is 

 not an annual comparison because the data are incomplete.) It wdl be noted that 

 the trends of the catches in these two localities over this entire period show a remark- 

 able correspondence — an agreement that could not reasonably be expected to occur 

 unless the supply for both areas came mainly from the same source. In view of the 

 evidence already presented, there can be little doubt that this source is the Chesa- 

 peake Bay area. In figure 35 the Maryland catch has been plotted at one-tenth 

 its actual value throughout, a reduction which brings the annual catch in that State 



Figure 35. — Total catch of striped bass in certain years by all types of gear in Maryland and New York from 1887 to 1935 (from 

 U.S. Bureau of Fisheries canvass) . Maryland catch reduced to one-tenth throughout. 



down to the same proportions as that of New York. Assuming the fishing intensity 

 to be about the same in New York and Maryland, it is therefore reasonable to expect 

 that this means that about one-tenth of each year's production of young in Chesa- 

 peake Bay reach New York. However, since immigrants from Chesapeake Bay are 

 also taken in New Jersey and southern New England (unpublished material of V. D. 

 Vladykov, p. 46), it is probable that somewhat more than one-tenth of the annual 

 production of young leave Chesapeake Bay near the time that they become 2 years 

 old, at the beginning of their third summer, and before they are old enough to be of 

 any great value to the Chesapeake Bay fishery. 



FOOD OF THE STRIPED BASS 



The stomach contents of over 550 striped bass ranging in size from 6.5 to 115 

 cm. have been examined during the course of this investigation. These fish were 

 all taken from April to November 1936 and 1937. Most of them were caught in 

 Connecticut waters, although a few came from the Massachusetts coast and others 

 from Long Island and New Jersey. Of the total number of fish examined, the 

 majority were caught on rod and line; the others were taken by net. Over 75 per- 

 cent of the stomachs studied came from bass that ranged in size from 30 to 50 cm. 



The rugose lining of the stomach of the striped bass probably indicates a rapid 

 rate of digestion. It is apparently not a steady feeder, but may gorge itself over 

 comparatively short periods of time and then stop feeding until its stomach is com- 

 pletely empty again. Stomach-content analyses of individuals taken in the same 

 seine hauls often showed the food to be in similar states of digestion, thus providing 

 evidence that the members of a single school of striped bass feed simultaneously and 

 then digest their food over essentially the same period of time. Often a high 

 percentage of the bass in one haul would be filled with recently eaten fish such as men- 

 haden {Brevoortia tyrannus) or silversides (Menidia menidia notata). Stomach- 

 content analysis of the bass taken in another haul would reveal partially or well- 

 digested food. At other times most of the fish taken together would be entirely 

 empty. Approximately 52 percent of all the stomachs examined were completely 

 empty. This high percentage may be explained, at least in part, by the fact that a 

 large portion of the total number of stomachs examined were from rod-and-line caught 



