Captive stripers spawn 900k offspring
News Release
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Media contact: Dave Yeager, 850-957-6177
A small group of striped bass captured one year ago
from Lake Talquin, has produced 900,000 fingerling striped bass and
hybrid striped bass.
Dave Yeager, a fisheries biologist with the Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), said all of the
fry and fingerlings are slated for release within the next two
months in several Panhandle rivers.
Yeager, who works out of the FWC's Blackwater
Fisheries Research and Development Center in Holt, said they
captured four female and five male striped bass one year ago in
Lake Talquin. The nine fish, which they call brood fish, were
held all year in large, circular tanks with the lighting and water
temperature adjusted to mimic natural conditions.
"This is something we've learned and refined over
the years," Yeager said. "By controlling the water
temperature and amount of light they receive, we can condition the
fish to spawn."
He said the benefits of maintaining captive brood
fish include reducing manpower and time needed to collect wild
striped bass, thereby increasing the length of the striper spawning
season. In addition, by conditioning captive fish to spawn
before wild fish, the duration of the production season can be
increased.
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