ABSTRACT 



This study was undertaken in an effort to determine the value of gill 

 raker counts as a taxonomic tool in classifying populations of striped bass, 

 Roccus saxatilis. The possibility of a change with age and a difference between 

 sexes in the number of gill rakers was investigated. Specimens were available 

 from Philip River, Miramichi River, St. Lawrence River, coastal Rhode Island, 

 Long Island Sound, Hudson River, Mullica River, Delaware River, Chesapeake 

 Bay, Albemarle Sound, Pamlico River, Cape Fear River, Santee- Cooper River 

 System, Gulf of Mexico and California. Gill raker counts were subjected to the 

 following statistical procedures: t-test, analysis of variance, analysis of co- 

 variance, chi-square and regression. The tests showed that there was no 

 change in the number of gill rakers in the first two years of growth and that 

 there was no significant difference in the number of gill rakers between males 

 and females. On the basis of gill raker counts only, specimens from the Santee- 

 Cooper River System, South Carolina were considered as one population; this 

 was also true for specimens from the Hudson River, New York. The Chesapeake 

 Bay population was divided into three main subpopulations . Samples from Long 

 Island Sound were intermediate between those of Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson 

 River. Specimens from California and the Hudson River had high counts and 

 those from the Delaware River approached those from the James River in the 

 Chesapeake Bay. It was shown that gill raker counts could be used to separate 

 populations of striped bass . 



