July 9, 2018 — On the bank of the James River beside the Lions Bridge in Newport News, field assistant Matthew Oliver waded chest-deep into the warm, lapping water Friday morning, hauling a seine net.
The net wasn’t tall, but it was long — 100 feet — with floats along the top edge and sinkers along the bottom, the better to keep little baby fish from scurrying underneath and swimming away.
Oliver moved heavily in a wide arc through the water, the better to scoop up whatever was swimming in the shallows.
This was just one sweep of select sites along the shores of the James, York and Rappahannock rivers as the monthslong Juvenile Striped Bass Seine Survey kicks off.
The survey is conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point and is the second-longest continuous striped bass index in the country. It began in 1967 and, except for a five-year hiatus starting in 1973 for lack of funding, has been conducted every summer since.
The goal is to keep a weather eye on how this iconic sport fish is doing by counting the young-of-year that spawn early in the year and will, in just a few more years, become an official part of the region’s lucrative recreational and commercial fisheries.
“Knowing how many young striped bass are produced this year helps them understand what’s coming in the future,” said VIMS marine biologist Mary Fabrizio. “It helps us better manage the fishery.”