ML070170204

VYNPS - SEIS Web Reference - Connecticut River Striped Bass

ML070170204
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee
Issue date:	01/17/2007
From:	US Dept of Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service
To:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
jmm7
References
%dam200702
Download: ML070170204 (2)

Text

C ONNECTICUT R IVER A TLANTIC SALMON C OMMISSION Connecticut River Striped Bass The Connecticut River Atlan-tic Salmon Commission and its member agencies are working with partners to restore At-lantic salmon, American shad, and other migratory fish to the Connecticut River basin through fisheries manage-ment including hatchery pro-duction and release of salmon, harvest management, habitat restoration, fishway construction, dam removal, Striped Bass Trivia research and public educa-tion. (1) Striper females average how many pounds in size (a) 10-20 (b) 25-30 (c) 30-50 (d) 65 (2) Adult stripers spend most of their time in (a) the ocean and coastal estuaries (b) streams (c) lakes and ponds C ONNECTICUT R IVER (3) The largest proportion of harvested stripers is taken in MD, A TLANTIC SALMON C OMMISSION NJ, VA and what other two states? (a) NY (b) CT (c) NC 103 East Plumtree Road (d) MA Sunderland, Massachusetts (4) Adult striped bass are usually found how close to shore? (a) 01375 1-3 mi (b) 6-8 miles (c) 10-15 miles (d) 20-30 miles Phone: 413-548-9138 Fax: 413-548-9622 Email: Jan_Rowan@fws.gov Trivia Question Answers: (1) c (2) a (3) a&d (4) b

Striper Facts: Did You Know?

• Once in the Connecticut River, adult stripers key in on and voraciously feed on the must abundant prey available which at any one time may be juvenile Atlantic salmon, river her-ring, perch, American eel, or sea lamprey;

• Female stripers mature between the ages of 4 and 8, and males mature in half that time;

• Spawning usually peaks in the estuary or lower portion of large rivers in April, May or June, when the temperatures are in the 60s;

• 70-90% of the East Coast stocks of striped bass originated in the Chesapeake Bay though stocks also originate from the Roanoke and Hudson Rivers;

• The number of eggs produced by a female ranges from 500,000 to 3 million eggs, de-pending on the size of the female;

• The eggs hatch into tiny larvae in the tidal portion of the river;

• Juveniles school and grow in the estuaries for 2-4 years before they move out into the ocean;

• Once in the ocean, stripers migrate to feed, sometimes traveling thousands of miles along the East Coast; The largest striped bass ever recorded Status of Striped Bass was taken in 1891 and weighed 125 pounds; The oldest striped bass ever recorded was

• The East Coast striped bass population 31 years old; dropped dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s because of overfishing, poor wa-Striper Geography ter quality, and loss of habitat;

• Striped bass are found mainly along the

• Since 1990, the population has re-East Coast from Maine to North Carolina bounded because of strict regulations but they actually range all the way from adopted by all of the coastal states Canada to Florida; from Maine to North Carolina;

• Adults enter the Connecticut River in

• In 1995, the striped bass population late winter or early spring to feed (and was declared to be successfully re-maybe to spawn); stored and some commercial and rec-reational harvest regulations were ad-

• They spend the summer and early fall in justed upward; coastal waters around New England;

• Now, about 1.0-1.5 million striped bass

• Stripers winter off the coast of Virginia can be found in the river downstream or North Carolina; of the Holyoke dam every spring; Striped bass counts monitored at the Holyoke fish lift do not reflect the size of the striper population since stripers have no need to migrate further upstream.