October 18, 2024 — For another consecutive year, striped bass, or rockfish, in the Chesapeake Bay are showing poor reproduction rates according to studies in Maryland and Virginia.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has announced the results of 2024’s juvenile striped bass survey, aimed at tracking the reproductive success of striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay. The results of a similar study by William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have also been released.
According to DNR, the Maryland survey focuses on 22 sites within the Choptank, Nanticoke, and Potomac rivers, as well as the upper Chesapeake Bay where striped bass spawning largely occurs. Three times over the summer, biologists collect fish with a 100-foot net and document the number of young-of-year striped bass caught. These juveniles average less than 3 inches.