areas to the south yielded nonsignificant results 

 in every case. Table 12 does not indicate the 

 presence of a north -south cline, however, the 

 Santee -Cooper samples are seen to have the 

 longest heads . 



Table 14 contains a summary of all com- 

 parisons made. 



DISCUSSION 



Migratory and racial studies of the 

 striped bass along the Atlantic coast have been 

 divided into two phases, tagging programs and 

 investigations of meristic characters. The tag- 

 ging programs were initiated in 1936. Basic 

 knowledge of the seasonal coastwide migration 

 was determined by Merriman (1937 and 1941). 

 Between April and the end of October 1936, 

 Merriman (1937, pp. 27-32) tagged and released 

 1,397 striped bass in the Niantic and Thames 

 Rivers, Connecticut. Returns during the spring 

 months gave proof of an eastward movement 

 from Connecticut to Rhode Island believed to be 

 part of a mass migration to the north. The pop- 

 ulations of the Thames and Niantic Rivers 

 remained static during the summer months, as 

 the maximum distance traveled by an individual 

 was 10 miles . In the fall, tagged fish were first 

 caught at Montauk, Long Island, N. Y., and the 

 south side of Long Island. As the season pro- 

 gressed, returns were received from more 

 distant southern localities, and thus, a definite 

 southern migration was shown. An additional 

 tagging experiment was performed at Montauk, 

 Long Island, and the results verified the initial 

 study (Merriman 1941, p. 38). Results from 

 the last two studies and an additional tagging 

 program carried on in Albemarle Sound, led 

 Merriman to the following conclusions: 1 . The 

 striped bass south of Cape Hatteras comprise a 

 population that does not contribute to the coast - 

 wide northern migration; 2. The North Carolina 

 fish only contribute a very small percentage to 

 the summer population of the north; 3 . Most 

 of the northern migrants are from Chesapeake 

 Bay. Merriman' s findings suggest that various 

 populations of striped bass exist along the Atlan- 

 tic coast. These populations and the economic 

 importance of each should be well defined so 

 that, if necessary, sound management practices 

 could be applied . 



What actually caused the differences 

 that were encountered in body form of the striped 

 bass is subject to speculation. The north -south 

 cline that is noted in body depth (table 12), and 

 to a lesser extent in caudal -peduncle depth, may 

 indicate that the differences are genetic . The 

 presence of a cline in many instances is the re- 

 sult of selection (Huxley 1943, pp. 206-227), and 

 the cline therefore tends to be parallel to the 

 environment that influenced it . However, the 

 differences found are not necessarily the result 

 of selection; Martin (1949) showed that body form, 

 at least in the Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, 

 and perhaps in most fishes, ie influenced by 

 five relative -growth stanzas, provided the body 

 part under consideration does exhibit these 

 growth inflections. These stanzas were repre- 

 sented by four inflections found at approximately 

 the eyed-egg stage, hatching, ossification, and 

 sexual maturity. Since the body size at these in- 

 flections is an influencing factor on the deter- 

 mination of the relative size of the body parts, 

 it appears that the immediate environment can 

 alter body proportions during a considerable 

 length of time. It therefore seems likely that a 

 combination of genetic factors due to selection 

 and the effect of the immediate environment could 

 be the cause of differences that were found. 

 The other characters measured, predorsal dis- 

 tance, head length, and prepelvic distance, 

 yielded Y -values (table 12) that appear to be more 

 or less randomly distributed. However, non- 

 significance is present between some samples, 

 and consequently many of the ranking values are 

 meaningless . The random distribution of the 

 ranking values would seem to support the theory 

 that the characters measured are genetically 

 fixed. Even if these characters were not genetic- 

 ally fixed they could still be used as indicators 

 for separating populations of striped bass . No 

 taxonomic status can be assigned to the popula- 

 tions found different. Nevertheless, if all 

 individuals of one sample are found to exhibit a 

 certain characteristic that differs significantly 

 from the same characteristic found in another 

 sample, the populations are obviously not 

 homogeneous. 



The Hudson River samples were signif- 

 icantly different from the James population in 

 all characters studied and different from the 

 Delaware samples in all characters except caudal- 



