Mortality estimates of striped bass caught in Albemarle Sound and Roanoke River, North Carolina

A statistical analysis of the age composition of striped bass Morone saxatilis harvested in Albemarle Sound and the Roanoke River, North Carolina. indicated that in 1988–1992 the population experienced a relatively high rate of total mortality. Age-3 and older fish were estimated to have been fully vulnerable to fishing mortality and to have experienced a total instantaneous mortality rate of 1.04/year, which equals about 65% annually. Legal size limits in directed striped bass fisheries appear to have provided some protection to age-2 fish, which were only partially vulnerable to fishing mortality. The portion of total mortality due to fishing could not be estimated unconditionally because the numbers of striped bass taken in fisheries not directed at striped bass were unknown. An eggs-per-recruit model was developed to provide a conceptual framework for comparing the effects of fishery management options, such as reductions in hycatch or fishing mortality. on the striped bass population.