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The Nonindigenous Occurrences section of the NAS species profiles has a new structure. The section is now dynamically updated from the NAS database to ensure that it contains the most current and accurate information. Occurrences are summarized in Table 1, alphabetically by state, with years of earliest and most recent observations, and the tally and names of drainages where the species was observed. The table contains hyperlinks to collections tables of specimens based on the states, years, and drainages selected. References to specimens that were not obtained through sighting reports and personal communications are found through the hyperlink in the Table 1 caption or through the individual specimens linked in the collections tables.

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Common name: Striped Bass

Synonyms and Other Names: Roccus lineatus (Bloch 1792), R. saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792); striper, rock, rockfish.

Taxonomy: available through www.itis.gov

Identification: Smith (1985); Page and Burr (1991) Jenkins and Burkhead (1994); Mettee et al. (1996).

Size: 2 m.

Native Range: Atlantic drainages from St. Lawrence River, New Brunswick to St. Johns River in Florida; Gulf Slope drainages from Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana to Suwannee River drainage, Florida (Page and Burr 1991). Apparently, striped bass formerly occurred in coastal areas of eastern Texas (Anonymous 1987c). Higgins and Lord (1926) reported it as one of the chief commercial species in that area.

Alaska	Hawaii	Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands	Guam Saipan

Native range data for this species provided in part by NatureServe

Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUCs) Explained
Interactive maps: Point Distribution Maps

Means of Introduction: Intentionally stocked for sportfishing. Some records involved fish dispersed to other areas far from point of original introduction, for instance, downstream of reservoirs after passage over or through dams (e.g., Pflieger 1997).

Status: Reported as locally established in many states. Annual stocking of lakes and reservoirs maintains the sport fishery. Attempts to establish this species in the Youghiogheny River, Pennsylvania, failed (Hendricks et al. 1979). Not established in Colorado (Walker 1993). Not established in the Great Lakes (Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman 2000).

Impact of Introduction: Preys on small fishes. Bailey (1975) summarized what was known about impacts of stocked striped bass on clupeids in lakes and reservoirs in the Southeast. Maumelle Reservoir, Arkansas, had a possible reduction in clupeids; Toledo Bend and D'Arbonne reservoirs, Louisiana, had slight reductions; J. Percy Priest Reservoir, Tennessee, had a significant reduction; and Hunter land Julianna reservoirs suffered drastic reductions. Morgan and Gerlach (1950) reported finding numerous trout and salmon fry and fingerlings in striped bass stomachs at Coos Bay, Oregon.

Remarks: The Striped Bass is a highly prized sportfish. Bailey (1975) provided a table of locations, numbers, and factors affecting success of Striped Bass stocked in the Southeast, and the outcome. Setzler et al. (1980) provided a biological synopsis of this species. Some introductions in native range are of fish from another area, i.e., Atlantic Slope fish stocked in Gulf tributaries. Boschung (1992) states that native stocks probably no longer exist in Alabama except in the Chattahoochee drainage, having been replaced eslswhere by Atlantic coast stocks.

Nobriga et al. (2013) examined the effects of juvenile Striped Bass on Delta Smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) population dynamics, finding no correlation between between juvenile bass abundance and smelt survival and low estimates of consumption of smelt by juvenile bass.

Matlock (2014) discusses the historical status (native vs. non-native) of Striped Bass in Texas, and the potential policy implications.

References: (click for full references)

Anonymous. 1992a. Texas Parks and Wildlife News, Austin, TX, October 2.

Anonymous. 1994b. Fishes of the Dakotas. Brochure. American Fisheries Society Dakota Chapter, and North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

Bailey, W.M. 1975. An evaluation of striped bass introductions in the Southeastern United States. Arkansas Game and Fish Comission, Lonoke, mimeo, report. 101 pp.

Boschung, H. T. 1992. Catalogue of freshwater and marine fishes of Alabama. Alabama Museum of Natural History Bulletin 14:1-266.

Bouc, K. 1987. The fish book. Nebraskaland Magazine 65(1):1-130.

Buchanan, T. M. 1973. Key to the fishes of Arkansas. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock, AR. 68 pp., 198 maps.

Burr, B. M., and M. L. Warren, Jr. 1986. A distributional atlas of Kentucky fishes. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission Scientific and Technical Series 4. 398 pp.

Carter, A. - Fisheries Division, Arkansas Game and Fish Comission, Little Rock, AR. Response to NBS-G nonindigenous questionaire. 1992.

Clay, W. M. 1975. The fishes of Kentucky. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Frankfort, KY. 416 pp.

Cooper, E. L. 1983. Fishes of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA.

Cudmore-Vokey, B. and E.J. Crossman. 2000. Checklists of the fish fauna of the Laurentian Great Lakes and their connecting channels. Can. MS Rpt. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 2500: v + 39p.

Dahlberg, M. D., and D. C. Scott. 1971b. Introductions of freshwater fishes in Georgia. Bulletin of the Georgia Academy of Science 29:245-252.

Denoncourt, R. F., T. B. Robbins, and R. Hesser. 1975a. Recent introductions and reintroductions to the Pennsylvania fish fauna of the Susquehanna River drainage above Conowingo Dam. Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 49:57-58.

Douglas, N. H. 1974. Freshwater fishes of Louisiana. Claitor's Publishing Division, Baton Rouge, LA.

Edwards, G. B. 1974. Biology of the striped bass Morone saxatilis (Walbaum) in the Lower Colorado River (Arizona-California-Nevada). Master's thesis. Arizona State University. Tempe, AZ. 45pp.

Etnier, D. A., and W. C. Starnes. 1993. The fishes of Tennessee. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

Everhart, W. H., and W. R. Seaman. 1971. Fishes of Colorado. Colorado Game, Fish and Parks Division, Denver, CO. 75 pp.

Grabowski, S. J., S. D. Hiebert, and D. M. Lieberman. 1984. Potential for introduction of three species of nonnative fishes into central Arizona via the Central Arizona Project ? A literature review and analysis. REC-ERC-84-7. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO.

Hall, G. E. 1956. Additions to the fish fauna of Oklahoma with a summary of introduced species. Southwestern Naturalist 1(1):16-26.

Harlan, J. R., E. B. Speaker, and J. Mayhew. 1987. Iowa fish and fishing. Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Des Moines, IA. 323 pp.

Hendricks, M. L., J. R. Stauffer, Jr., C. H. Hocutt, and C. R. Gilbert. 1979. A preliminary checklist of the fishes of the Youghiogheny River. Chicago Academy of Sciences, Natural History Miscellanea 203:1-15.

Hocutt, C.H., R.E. Jenkins, and J.R. Stauffer, Jr. 1986 . Zoogeography of the Fishes of the Central Appalachians and Central Atlantic Coastal Plain. In C.H. Hocutt and E.O. Wiley, eds. The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes. :161-212.

Howells, R. G. 1992a. Annotated list of introduced non-native fishes, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants in Texas waters. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Management Data Series 78, Austin, TX. 19 pp.

Insider Viewpoint. 2001. Fishing Records – Nevada. Insider Viewpoint Magazine. 3 pp.

Jenkins, R. E., and N. M. Burkhead. 1994. Freshwater fishes of Virginia. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.

Jones, D. J. 1963. A history of Nebraska's fisheries resources. Dingell-Hohnson Federal Aid in Fish Restoration Project F-4-R Publication. Nebraska Game, Forestation and Parks Commission..

Kelly, H.D. 1969. The production and management of striped bass, Roccus saxatilis (Walbaum), in Alabama. Jour. Ala. Acad. Sci. 40(1): 1-4.

Laird, C. A. and L. M. Page. 1996. Non-native Fishes Inhabiting the Streams and Lakes of Illinios. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin. 35(1): 1-51.

Lee, D. S., C. R. Gilbert, C. H. Hocutt, R. E. Jenkins, D. E. McAllister, and J. R. Stauffer, Jr. 1980 et seq. Atlas of North American freshwater fishes. North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh, NC.

Maciolek, J. A. 1984. Exotic fishes in Hawaii and other islands of Oceania. Pages 131-161 in W. R. Courtenay, Jr., and J. R. Stauffer, Jr., editors. Distribution, biology, and management of exotic fishes. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

Martin, C.R., and T.B. Hess. 1984. Analysis of the fish population and fishery of Lake Oconee.

Matern, S.A., P.B. Moyle, and L.C. Pierce. 2002. Native and alien fishes in a California estuarine marsh: twenty-one years of changing assemblages. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.  131: 797-816.

Matlock, G.C. 2014. The precautionary approach to non-native fisheries—the case of striped bass in Texas. Marine Policy 47:94-98.

Menhinick, E. F. 1991. The freshwater fishes of North Carolina. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. 227 pp.

Miller, R.R. and C.H. Lowe. 1967. Part 2. Fishes of Arizona, p 133-151, In: C.H. Lowe, ed. The Vertebrates of Arizona. University of Arizona Press. Tucson.

Moczygemba, J. H., and D. J. Morris. 1977. Statewide striped bass study for Texas. Federal Aid Project F-13-R-3.

Morgan, M.D., and A.R. Gerlach. 1950. Striped bass studies on Coos Bay in 1949 and 1950. Report of the Oregon Fish Commission and Oregon Game Commission to the Forty-sixth Legislature.

Morris, J., L. Morris, and L. Witt. 1974. The fishes of Nebraska. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Lincoln, NE.

Moyle, P. B. 1976a. Inland fishes of California. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Nobriga, M.L., E. Loboschefsky, and F. Feyrer. 2013. Common predator, rare prey: exploring juvenile Striped Bass predation on Delta Smelt in California's San Francisco Estuary. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 142(6):1563-1575. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00028487.2013.820217.

Page, L. M., and B. M. Burr. 1991. A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. The Peterson Field Guide Series, volume 42. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.

Pflieger, W. L. 1975. The fishes of Missouri. Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City, MO. 343 pp.

Phillips, G. L., W. D. Schmid, J. C. Underhill. 1982. Fishes of the Minnesota region. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.

Rasmussen, J.L. 1998. Aquatic nuisance species of the Mississippi River basin. 60th Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, Aquatic Nuisance Species Symposium, Dec. 7, 1998, Cincinnati, OH.

Smith, H. M. 1896. A review of the history and results of the attempts to acclimatize fish and other water animals in the Pacific states. Pages 379-472 in Bulletin of the U.S. Fish Commission, Vol. XV, for 1895.

Smith, P. W. 1979. The fishes of Illinois. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL.

Sommer, T, B. Harrell, M. Nobriga, R. Brown, P. Moyle, W. Kimmerer, and L. Schemel. 2001. California's Yolo Bypass: Evidence that flood control can be compatible with fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, and agriculture. Fisheries. American Fisheries Society. 26 (8): 6-16.

St. Amant, J. A. 1959. Striped bass introduced into the Colorado River. California Fish and Game 45(4):353.

State of Oregon. 2000. Warm Water Game Fish Records. 7 pp.

Stauffer, J. R., Jr., J. M. Boltz, and L. R. White. 1993. The fishes of West Virginia. West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. Unpublished manuscript. 1114 pp.

Sublette, J. E., M. D. Hatch, and M. Sublette. 1990. The fishes of New Mexico. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM. 393 pp.

Swift, C., R. W. Yerger, and P. R. Parrish. 1977. Distribution and natural history of the fresh and brackish water fishes of the Ochlocknee River, Florida and Georgia. Bulletin of Tall Timbers Research Station 20.

Tilmant, J.T. 1999. Management of nonindigenous aquatic fish in the U.S. National Park System. National Park Service. 50 pp.

Trautman, M. B. 1981. The fishes of Ohio. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, OH.

Vinyard, G.L. 2001. Fish Species Recorded from Nevada. Biological Resources Research Center. University of Nevada, Reno. 5 pp.

Walker, P. - Colorado Division of Wildlife, Brush, CO.

Wydoski, R. S., and R. R. Whitney. 1979. Inland fishes of Washington. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA.

Young, B. A., T. L. Welker, M. L. Wildhaber, C. R. Berry, and D. Scarnecchia, editors. 1997. Population structure and habitat use of benthic fishes along the Missouri and lower Yellowstone rivers. Annual Report of Missouri River Benthic Fish Study PD-95-5832. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 207 pp.

Other Resources:
Distribution in Illinois - Illinois Natural History Survey

Author: Pam Fuller, and Matt Neilson

Peer Review Date: 6/11/2014

This information is preliminary or provisional and is subject to revision. It is being provided to meet the need for timely best science. The information has not received final approval by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is provided on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from the authorized or unauthorized use of the information.