394 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Merriman 43 has suggested that these northern 

 wintering fish may be "of two types — the individ- 

 uals that form the resident more or less isolated 

 population" and others "that may have had their 

 origin farther south but spend an occasional winter 

 in northern waters." It may prove that a good 

 proportion of these bass that come from the south 

 when they are 3-^1 years old may remain in the 

 north for the rest of their lives. And there is no 

 way for the fisherman to tell in which of these 

 categories the bass belong, that he lands. The 

 reader will find some further discussion of migra- 

 tions in connection with the status of the bass in 

 the Gulf of Maine (p. 395). We need only add that 

 the existence of these nonmigratory populations 

 and the fact that the Pacific coast bass are simi- 

 larly stationary, are sufficient proof that seasonal 

 migration is not an essential incident in the life 

 of the striper. 



Bass spawn either in brackish water at the heads 

 of estuaries* 4 (the Hudson, for example) or in 

 fresh rivers, never off the open coast in salt water 

 so far as is known. Those that enter fresh rivers 

 may deposit their eggs only a short distance above 

 the head of tide as they do in the Potomac, or 

 they may run much farther upstream. But we 

 have yet to learn how large a percentage of the 

 bass that are known to spawn 100 miles up the 

 Roanoke, near Weldon, N. C. (a major spawning 

 ground), or still farther up the Alabama, 46 and up 

 the Sacramento River in California, have come 

 from salt water (p. 392). 



The chief requirement for successful spawning 

 is (it seems) a current turbulent enough to prevent 

 the eggs from settling on bottom where they would 

 be in danger of being silted over and smothered. 



The spawning season is from late April to early 

 May in North Carolina; in May, chiefly, in the 

 Chesapeake Bay region; perhaps equally early in 

 the waters of New York. 46 Any bass that may 

 spawn in the rivers of Massachusetts, of Maine, 

 and of the Bay of Fundy, probably do so in June; 

 those of the southern shore of the Gulf of St. 



« Fish. Bull. No. 35, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, vol. 50, p. 42. 



<< See Merriman, Fishery Bulletin No. 35, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 1941. vol. 50, p 17, for precise salinites in which bass in their first summer have 

 been taken in the Hudson River, and in the Parker River, Massachusetts. 

 See Tresselt (Bull. Bingham Oceanogr. Coll., vol. 14, art. 1, pp. 98-110, 1952) 

 for a survey of spawning grounds tributary to Chesapeake Bay. 



« Pearson (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 49, 1938, p. 829) records a female with 

 eggs from the Alabama River near Montgomery. 



« Greeley (New York Conserv. Dept., Biol. Surv. Lower Hudson Water- 

 shed, 1937, p. 100) concludes that the spawning season in the Hudson "in- 

 cludes May." 



Lawrence and of the lower St. Lawrence River in 

 June and July. 



A large female during spawning may be sur- 

 rounded by many small males, and the latter are 

 described as fighting fiercely 47 with one another. 



Females stripped at the Weldon, N. C. Hatchery 

 yielded from 11,000 to 1,215,000 eggs each, during 

 the period 1928 to 1938, with one of 4K pounds 

 yielding 265,000. Thus the oft-quoted estimate 

 of 10 million fish for a really large one is within 

 reason. 48 



The eggs average 1.1-1.35 mm. in diameter when 

 they are deposited in the water, but the pervitel- 

 line membrane swells during the first hours after 

 fertilization to an average diameter of about 3.6 

 mm. They have a large oil globule and are semi- 

 buoyant; that is, they sink in quiet water, but are 

 swept up from the bottom by the slightest dis- 

 turbance, so that they tend to drift downstream 

 with the current. Consequently the eggs that are 

 produced far upstream may not hatch until they 

 have reached tidewater. The eggs are reported 

 as hatching in about 70 to 74 hours at a temper- 

 ature of 58-60°; in about 48 hours at 67°; in about 

 30 hours at 71-72°. 



In Chesapeake Bay, the young fry of the year 

 are about 1} 6 inches (30 mm.) long by June; 1% to 

 2Yi2 inches (45-53 mm.) long in July; 2 to 2% inches 

 (50-70 mm.) in August; and 3% to 8% inches by 

 the following April and May; i. e., at the end of 

 their first year. 49 According to Merrimaa, 50 most 

 of the fry of the year taken in the Hudson River 

 during their first summer are between about 1% 

 inches (40 mm.) and about 3K inches (90 mm.) 

 long; a few seined in the Parker River, Newbury, 

 Mass., were from about 2% inches (71 mm.) to 

 about 3% inches (85 mm.) long. And this last is 

 perhaps representative for whatever bass may now 

 be produced in Gulf of Maine rivers, for we read 

 that great numbers of fry of 2 to 3 inches were 

 taken of old in winter in the rivers of Maine in 

 bagnets set for smelt and tomcod. 61 



Two-year-old bass taken in Connecticut aver- 

 aged 1 1 to 1 lji inches (28 or 29 cm.) long in spring, 



« See Smith, North Carolina Oeol. Econ. Survey, vol. 2, 1907, p. 272, for 

 an eyewitness account by S. G. Worth. 



i* Merriman (Fish. Bull. No. 35, TJ. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, 

 vol. 50, p. 19) gives an excellent summary of information available as to 

 spawing, characteristics of the eggs, and period of incubation. 



« Hildebrand and Schroeder, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 43, Pt. 1, 1928, 

 pp. 248-249 



» Fish. Bull. No. 35, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, vol. 50, p. 17, 

 fig. 10. 



•i Atkins, Fish. Ind. TJ. S., Sect. 5, vol. 1, 1887, p. 693. 



