Recent surveys of juvenile striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay watershed found slightly improved numbers of fish for 2025. Conducted by biologists in Maryland and Virginia, the surveys included counts of juvenile striped bass and other species in waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) 2025 juvenile striped bass survey recorded a young-of-year index of 4.0. This is an improvement over recent years, but still well below the long-term survey average of 11.
2025 was the seventh consecutive year of low spawning success for striped bass. The annual survey tracks the reproductive success of Maryland’s state fish in Chesapeake Bay.
During this annual survey, fishery managers sample 22 sites located in four major striped bass spawning areas: the Choptank, Nanticoke, and Potomac rivers, and the upper Chesapeake Bay.
Biologists visit each site three times per summer, collecting fish with two sweeps of a 100-foot beach seine net. The index represents the average number of 3-inch or less juvenile striped bass caught in each sweep of the net.
Similar fish surveys were conducted this summer in the Patapsco, Magothy, Severn, Rhode, West, and Tred Avon rivers, and St. Clements and Breton bays. Those surveys, which were conducted outside the annual survey locations, found even fewer young-of-year striped bass.
Biologists captured more than 36,000 fish of 55 different species while conducting this year’s survey. Positive findings include three important forage species that were documented in abundance during the survey.
Atlantic menhaden and bay anchovies were widespread in the Bay for the third consecutive year. Atlantic silversides were plentiful compared to last summer. These species are vital to the ecology of the Bay as a food source for many other species of fish and wildlife.
Virginia
Preliminary results from an ongoing long-term survey conducted by researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS suggest that an average year class of young-of-year striped bass was produced in the Virginia tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay in 2025. The 2025 year class, representing fish hatched this spring, will reach fishable sizes in three to four years.
The Batten School & VIMS Juvenile Striped Bass Seine Survey recorded a mean value of 5.12 fish per seine haul in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The 2025 value is similar to the historic average of 7.77 fish per seine haul and represents an improvement over the previous two years of below-average recruitment in Virginia tributaries.
Mary Fabrizio, a professor at the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS, directs the Juvenile Striped Bass Seine Survey and notes that the economic and ecological values of striped bass lend significant interest to the year-to-year status of their population.
“By estimating the relative number of young-of-year striped bass, our survey provides an important measure of annual and long-term trends in the Bay’s striped bass population,” said Fabrizio.
The survey team samples fish from 18 index sites in the Rappahannock, York and James River systems. Scientists sample each site five times from mid-June to early September, deploying a 100-foot seine net from the shore.
Captured fish are counted, measured and returned alive to the river. At this time of year, young striped bass usually measure between 1.5 and 4 inches. In 2025, scientists in Virginia measured 1,004 juvenile striped bass at index sites.
VIMS began conducting the Juvenile Striped Bass Seine Survey for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and to support coastwide stock assessments for striped bass in 1967. The survey is now the second-longest continuous striped bass index in the U.S., supporting decision making for this commercially and recreationally important species.
Striped Bass
Striped bass are an important top predator in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and a valuable resource for commercial and recreational anglers.
The striped bass population in the Chesapeake Bay has rebounded from historic lows in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after fishing bans were enacted in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia in the mid- to late-1980s.
Since then, the population increased to the point that striped bass in the Bay and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast were considered recovered. Years of heavy fishing followed, after which scientists determined that the striped bass population was overfished, and that fishing-related mortality exceeded sustainable levels.
Through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Coalition, Maryland and other states that border the Atlantic Ocean have implemented management actions aimed at rebuilding the striped bass spawning stock.
Those measures include reductions to catch limits, increased protections for spawning fish, tighter slot limits, and season closures. Recent population estimates indicate healthy adult populations, despite the downturn in juvenile spawning rates.
However, droughts and warm conditions in winter continue to negatively impact the survival of striped bass eggs and larvae, which are very sensitive to water conditions and food availability in the first several weeks after hatching.
Other species that migrate to freshwater to spawn such as white perch, blueback herring, and American shad also experienced below-average reproduction this year. Low levels of reproduction will likely guide future conservation measures considered by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) 2024 Atlantic Striped Bass Stock Assessment Update Report, the stock remains overfished but is no longer experiencing overfishing.
Since 2022, multiple measures – including size limits on the recreational fishery, bag limits, gear restrictions and commercial quota reductions – have been implemented to reduce fishing mortality and rebuild the striped bass stock by 2029.
More information about current striped bass management and regulations is available on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission website.
In the Chesapeake Bay region, striped bass are also known as rockfish. The species is important to both recreational and commercial fishermen.
sources: Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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