I found and copied this post from "Stripers On Line"
The sad part of the YOY Striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay is that 70 % of them will contract mycobactiosis due to the stress caused by high water temperatures in the environment. The historical deep cool water refuges are full of dead algae and there is no oxygen available in the deep water.
That's one of the reasons why ASMFC moved up the Striped Bass Review to 2014. The biomass level is around 40 million fish. The "trigger is 37,500,000 fish and that was decided upon in 1996. We are nowhere near the striped bass crash figure of 1985. (6,000,000 striped bass)
The striped bass cycle peaked in 2007 at almost 70,000,000 fish. Attempting to create a sustained 70 million striped bass is impossible. Especially with the defective YOY numbers in the Chesapeake Bay population of stripers.
The following was published in the SB Stock assessment issued in December, 2013. The largest SB Tribe is found in Chesapeake Bay. It is the Tribe that migrates north into the Gulf of Maine annually. This source of striped bass in New England waters north of Cape Cod is deep trouble due to the pollution it has to survive for three to four years before the YOY Class years can escape the Bay and move out into the clean and cooler Atlantic Ocean.
The volume of urban pollutants cause by the megapolis that has blossomed from Philadelphia down to the northern suburbs of Washington, DC in Virginia is part of the problem. The major source of algae Blooms in the essentially shallow Chesapeake Bay region are caused by the run-off of Chicken Crap generated by the billion chickens grown annually in the southern Susquahanna River of PA, and the Chicken Meat Farms of the Delmarva Region on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay.
The Algae dies and sinks into the deepest and coolest parts of the Bay. Dead algae absorbs and eliminates the oxygen in the once cool water reserves that YOY striped bass went to when the water temperatures in the shallows during late June thru September in "The Bay" rises into the mid 90 degree range. Those 1 to 5 year old fish are stressed by high water temperatures.. Striped Bass and their cousins White Perch, are the only fish species in the Bay that have mycobactiosis.
Young Striped bass do not move out into the Atlantic until they spend two years or more growing in the saltwater portions of the Chesapeake Bay. Their DNA traps them in a highly stressful environment for 2 to 3 summers. When striped bass develop mycobactiosis the majority of those affected will die before their first migration and all before their first mature spawning event at age 8.
Here is the assessment and history of Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass Disease Mycobactiosis
B5.4.8 Natural Mortality and Disease (ASMFC Striped Bass) December 2013 ASSESSMENT
The epizootic of mycobactiosis was first detected in the Chesapeake Bay in 1997 (Heckert et al 2001; Rhodes et al. 2001). However, a retrospective examination of archived tissue samples by Jacobs et al. (2009a) suggested that mycobacteriosis was apparent in Chesapeake Bay striped bass as early as 1984. A rise in Mycobacterium disease in Chesapeake Bay could be causing increases in natural mortality (Pieper 2006; Ottinger and Jacobs 2006). Two primary hypotheses have emerged regarding the mechanism for increased natural mortality (Vogelbein et al. 2006).
One is that elevated nutrient inputs to the Bay, with associated eutrophication, results in loss of thermal refuges for striped bass, forcing them into suboptimal and stressful habitat during the summer.
Prevalence of the disease ranges from ~50% as determined through standard histological methods (Overton et al. 2003), to up 75% with molecular techniques (Kaattari et al. 2005).
Prevalence is dependent on the age class sampled with prevalence increasing with age to approximately age 5 and then decreasing in older ages (Kaattari et al. 2005; Gauthier et al. 2008).
The decline in prevalence with older ages is likely due to increased mortality in fish which have contracted the disease and do not live to older ages as there appears to be limited ability of striped bass to resolve the disease once it is contracted (Matt Smith, unpublished data).
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has stated that 99% of historical Chesapeake Bay Oyster grounds are gone. Oyster beds were once rich feeding grounds for striped bass in the Bay. Crabs, silversides, bay anchovies and killifish all used the oyster beds as places to hide from predators. This past summer a bushel of fresh caught Chesapeake Bay Crabs went for $210.00. That iconic price highlighted the scarcity of Crabs in the Bay. The whole bay is afflicted, but the striped bass is damaged by mycobactiosis on top of the reduction of cool water refuges.
The Chesapeake Bay Tribe is thought to produce 60% of all young of the year migratory striped bass between VA and Maine.
The Hudson River Tribe is thought to produce between 25 and 30% of the migratory striped bass between Cape May, NJ and the southern beaches of Cape Cod. The 120 mile long Freshwater tidal (5 to 6 feet twice a day) in the 160 unobstructed river water from NY Harbor to the Federal Flood Control Dam north of Albany, NY, is the largest single river system that produces striped bass in the world.
Since 2000 the Hudson River has been designated a Class A swimming water from Albany to NY City. Seven communities draw fresh water from the Hudson as there source of drinking water. The Combination of Clean Water Act funding of water filtration plants in every community along the Hudson River begin 50 years ago and the 5 Billion dollar Hudson River Environmental Bond pass by NY votes during the Gov. George Pataki ® Administration in the early 1990's has created a clean environment for 209 species of fish and other aquatic creatures and waterfowl. This past spring an unusually high number of 40 pound Striped bass were caught and released during the spring spawning run. River Herring (Blueback and Alewife) numbers were way up and American Shad (Closed Seasons) seem to be recovering.
The Delaware River Tribe is subjected to a very shore freshwater window in its spawning grounds between the Commander Barry Bridge in Chester, PA and the C&D Canal, just southeast of New Castle, DE. If there is insufficient snow pac runoff up river from the South facing Catskill Mtns and the Pocono Mtns spawning does not occur. The Spring of 2012, after the winter that wasn't was a failure to spawn season for the Delaware River Tribe. A lot of egg filled female striped bass were caught in South Jersey in late May and June, 2012. The 2013 spring spawning event was under average.
Age 6+ females who developed eggs but fail to spawn absorb the eggs as protein during 30 or more days after their failure to spawn. The process is linked to the tiny striped bass what are born in the spring. they remain attached to the egg and absorb it in a few days and then begin to feed of microscopic food until they can handle insects and then other fin fish.
brushfly, remember in 2011 the Chesapeake Bay produced the highest number of YOY stripers ever recorded. In 2012 it produced the lowest number of YOY Striped bass.
Mycobactiosis is not transmitted to the other Tribes by sick Chesapeake Bay striped bass.
The annual loss of mature female striped bass may be caused by the losses caused by Mycobactiosis in the Chesapeake Bay YOY who do not reach maturity. some how, some way we need to clean out the deep water refuges and keep them clean.
Link to source: http://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/topic/630741-montauk-another-year-without-the-bass-blitz/page-3
