Nancy Tyndall and her first hybrid bass growout pond. 



CR Edgerton 



operation produces hybrid striped bass 

 fingerlings for its own use. 



But setting up hatcheries won't 

 become a reality until scientists can make a 

 breakthrough with broodstock, Ellis says. 



"Right now. we're getting our 

 broodstock from the wild," he says. "What 

 we're after is the ability to control brood- 

 stock to spawn at any time of the year. That 

 way. we can leave the wild fish alone.'' 



UNC Sea Grant researchers Ron 

 Hodson and Craig Sullivan are leading the 

 way in hybrid striped bass broodstock 

 research (see related article on page 17). 

 "Their work may open up this industry in 

 three to five years," Ellis says. 



"It's true; hybrid striped bass produc- 

 tion is going to be a major industry," says 

 Hodson. "It's one of those projects that Sea 

 Grant took a chance on back in the late 

 1970s, and it aimed into something." 



Hodson credits the foresight of Sea 

 Grant Director B.J. Copeland and former 

 researcher Howard Kerby for the success in 

 North Carolina's hybrid bass research. 



"Ours was the first study to examine 

 hybrid striped bass in ponds." he says. "All 

 the striped bass work in the country started 

 in the late 70s and, before we started, the 

 hybrid had been raised in cages, but not in 

 ponds." 



From that initial research, the body of 

 knowledge grew by leaps and bounds. By 



The North Carolina 

 coastal plain is an ideal 

 site for hybrid striped 

 bass production. 



1985. Sea Grant was extending this 

 knowledge to fanners, and by 1987, with 

 the help of the National Coastal Resources 

 Research and Development Institute, the 

 nation's first hybrid striped bass pond 

 culture was set up on the Brothers farm. 



"We'll look back in history and point 

 to that event," Hodson says. 'That was the 

 start." 



And what a start it was. 



During the winter of 1988-89. 

 Brothers harvested and marketed his first 

 crop of hybrid striped bass. Last year, with 

 three other farmers hopping onto the 

 hybrid bass bandwagon, about 120,000 

 pounds were produced in North Carolina. 

 Nationally, more than 3 million pounds 

 were produced and marketed. 



"And the industry could easily expand 

 to thousands of acres of productive water 

 in North Carolina," Hodson says. 



The North Carolina coastal plain is an 

 ideal site for hybrid striped bass produc- 

 tion. "We have lots of water; flat, clayey 

 soil; and a good climate," Hodson says. 

 "And we're fairly close to northern 

 markets." 



But there are problems. 



One major hurdle in hybrid bass 

 production is what Hodson calls "closing 

 the loop," or having complete control of 

 the life cycle of the hybrid. 



Although total control has been 

 accomplished with most cultured fish, a 

 major breakthrough in that area hasn't 

 occurred with hybrid striped bass. 



"We still have to go to the wild for 

 both white and striped bass, the two 

 components of our breeding program," 

 Hodson says. 'We'll be able to close the 

 loop when we have developed a domesti- 

 cated broodstock. Until we do that, we 

 can't do anything about genetic selection, 

 which has advanced the production of 

 other species like trout and catfish." 



Until that cycle is under control, the 

 hybrid bass industry will not advance 

 rapidly. 



"We're at the mercy of state and 

 federal agencies who see us taking a 

 limited resource from the wild," he says. 

 "And, until we have domesticated brood- 

 stock, this won't get anything but worse." 



Some progress has been made. 



4 JULY/AUGUST 1991 



