Interactions between adult migratory striped bass and their prey during winter off the Virginia and North Carolina Atlantic coast from 1994 through 2007

Interactions between adult migratory striped bass and their prey during winter off the Virginia and North Carolina Atlantic coast from 1994 through 2007 were studied. Feeding habits and prey were described from stomach contents of 1154 striped bass ranging from 373 to 1250 mm total length (TL). It was found that Atlantic menhaden represented a higher biomass of the striped bass diet, indicating a greater dependency on Atlantic menhaden during the period of ocean residence in winter. There were less than five occurrences of alosines, which indicated that anadromous alosines contributed little to the production of striped bass during their ocean residency in winter. Striped bass shared similar migration patterns of other anadromous species and alosines were observed in the same trawls in which striped bass were collected.