Stripers on the Move

July 2004

Fisheries biologists at Gulf Coast Research Laboratory have launched preparations for moving about 100,000 juvenile striped bass from tanks at GCRL to Mississippi’s coastal river systems this week.

Anglers prize the species for their size, fight, and taste. Although scientists have seen no evidence that the stripers released in coastal waters are reproducing, the species is once again on the list of fish available to coastal Mississippi anglers through the release of juveniles reared at GCRL.

Nicholson and team will return another 20,000 of the two-inch fish to tanks at the laboratory for further growth. In the fall the fish will have reached about six inches, and the researchers will tag and release them. The stripers take one to two years to reach 15 inches, the minimum size for anglers to keep the a striped bass they have caught.

All aquaculture work is funded through the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The GCRL, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has raised and released more than 14 million striped bass in Mississippi coastal rivers since the program began in 1968. The laboratory is part of the university's College of Science and Technology.