Adopted Bass

Location: Little Egg Harbor
Date: July 1st, 2004
Tide: Ebb
Bait: Eel
Notes: Caught by Dick Thomas on D. Messeschmids Fish Hawk.
Adopted by: Hi-Mar Striper Club – “Individuals who want to make a difference in preserving our precious fishery for generations to come.”

The Hi-Mar Striper Club will be participating in a scientific experiment working with the scientists from Rutgers University Marine Field Station to help better understand the coastal migration of striped bass.  A map of the study area is shown below.

The Hi-Mar Striper Club has adopted a striped bass and has funded for an acoustic transmitter to be implanted in the striper.  The acoustic tag allows scientist to track a fish’s movements in great detail. The Rutgers scientist have moored radio buoys throughout the Great Bay Region which will pick up the acoustic signal of a tagged bass as it swims within range and then sends data about the fish’s location back to a base station via radio waves.  To see Hi-Mar’s tracking info to date, click here.

Being able to track a stripers movements we will better be able to understand how far and to where to stripers regularly travel.  Where are the spawning estuaries and do bass always return to the same estuaries?  In addition to spawning behaviors of bass we will be able to understand if different groups of striped bass are indigenous to an area or if they are migratory fish.  This type of experiment is essential to understanding stripers migratory routes, habitat, and estuary grounds.  We will be able to protect these lands from commercial fishing if we prove migratory routes or spawning grounds.

For more information on our scientific experiment with Rutgers University visit:  www.stripertracker.org