Fishery bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service - NOAA

STUDIES ON THE STRIPED BASS OF THE ATLANTIC COAST 53
fish, which are commonly empty because bass are more likely to be taken by anglers
at the start of a feeding period when they usually have nothing in their stomachs,
and also because bass taken on hook and line are often seen to regurgitate recently
swallowed food.
Studies of the food of juvenile and yearling striped bass ranging from 3-11cm. in
standard length, seined on gravelly shoals of the Hudson River at Dennings Point,
near Beacon, N. Y., have been made by Townes (1937) in connection with the biological
survey of the Lower Hudson Watershed carried out in 1936 by the State of
New York Conservation Department. The majority of these fish ranged from
3.0-5.5 cm. in length. It was found that the fresh-water shrimp (Gammarusfasciatus)
formed about 60 percent of the food, with chironomid larvae the next most important
item. Small fish remains (not identified, save for one eel, Anguilla rostrata), leptocerid
larvae, and planktonic Crustacea such as Latona, Cyclops, and Eurytemora, formed a
small percentage of the food. Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928) examined the
stomach contents of small striped bass from the salt and brackish waters of Chesapeake
Bay, and found that ". . . the young had fed on Mysis, Gammarus, annelids, and
insects." The stomach-content analysis of small bass has been confined in the present
study to 3 juveniles ranging from 6.0-7.5 cm. in standard length taken in the Parker
River, Mass., on August 4, 1937, and 30 juvenile and yearling individuals from 11-23
cm. long taken in the Delaware River, near Pennsville, N. J., on November 8, 1937.
Those from the Parker River all had their stomachs filled with the shrimp, Crago
septemspinosus. Those from the Delaware River were large enough to have become
more voracious in their feeding habits, as is evidenced by the fact that 19 of the 30
examined contained the remains of fish of different species; the others were empty.
A clupeoid species (probably menhaden, Brevoortw, tyrannus) formed the main diet,
while white perch, Morone americana, and shiners, Notropis hvdsonius amarus, were
also commonly eaten. It is of some interest that one bass 16.5 cm. (6X inches) long
contained a 7.5 cm. (2.95 inches) Morone americana, and examination of the stomach
of an 18.5 cm. (7.28 inches) bass revealed the presence of a 10 cm. (3.94 inches)
Notropis sp.
The examination of stomach contents of larger striped bass (above 25 cm.) has
confirmed the commonly held view that this species is voracious in its feeding habits,
and fairly general in its choice of food. It has also made it clear that bass often feed
off the bottom, and blind individuals that were frequently taken in the Thames
River, Conn, (see under section on parasites and abnormalities of the striped bass),
appeared to manage well by feeding only on bottom-dwelling forms such as those
included in the list below.
The most common form of food in Connecticut waters is the shiner, or silversides
(Menidia menidia notata). This is a species which spawns in the spring (Hildebrand,
1922), and the young of each year stay so close to shore and are of such small
size that they do not become available to the striped bass as food until August. At
this time they reach 2 cm. in length and often stray farther offshore. The growth
rate of juvenile Menidia is shown in figure 36. The length-frequency curves making
up this graph are from random samples of the population seined at biweekly intervals
from July to September 1937 in the Niantic River, Conn. It is apparent from a glance
at the modes of these curves that in 1937 a peak of 2.0 cm. was attained shortly
after the middle of August. Stomach-content analysis of striped bass 30450 cm.
long in this area hi 1936 and 1937 showed that adult Menidia and the common prawn
(Palaemonetes vulgaris) formed the mam food from April to August, but that in August
and September the bass fed on juvenile Menidia to a large extent. Shortly after this
change in diet in 1936 there was a decided increase hi the growth rate of the 2-yearold
striped bass (see p. 28), which, despite the drop in water temperature (see fig. 30),
was greatest in October. The presence of what was apparently an unusually great
number of juvenile menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) hi 1936 may also have played a
part in this increased growth rate, for from August on striped bass commonly fed
» Identified by Dr. Charles J. Fish, Director of the Marine Laboratory at Narragansett, Rhode Island State College, Kingston,
K.I.