Tag

striped bass
06
Jul

Sacramento pikeminnow and introduced striped bass in the middle Sacramento River eat a surprisingly similar diet, says a new study in San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science.

Both species have been implicated in the decline of vulnerable native species in the river, particularly juvenile Chinook salmon, says lead author Dylan Stompe, a PhD student and researcher at the University of California at Davis. For eight months in 2017, Stompe and fellow researchers with the California State University at Chico and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife surveyed a 35 kilometer reach of the river outside Chico for the two predatory fish. They baited hooks with with sardines, worms, and chicken liver and fished from an anchored boat. When they brought a pikeminnow or striped bass on board, the researchers performed a gastric lavage, in which pulses of pressurized water are directed into the fish’s esophagus, causing...
Read More
06
Jul

Should the striped bass be a suspect in the decline of the Delta smelt?

Writing in the March issue of San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science, US Fish and Wildlife Service biologists Matt Nobriga and Will Smith suggest that the smelt’s baseline might have shifted long before anyone was paying attention, and striped bass predation may have constrained its numbers before recent water diversions and food web changes added their effects. The smelt’s historic abundance is unknown; systematic surveys didn’t begin until 1959. But it’s thought to have evolved its boom-and-bust life history in response to predation pressure from native fish or birds. Was the bass, introduced in the late 19th century, one predator too many, or too effective? Nobriga notes that Delta smelt don’t respond predictably to changing flows: “From what we know...
Read More