New York Launches Survey To Monitor Striped Bass Health - The Fisherman

New York Launches Survey To Monitor Striped Bass Health

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New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced a two-year study to monitor the health and contaminant loads of Atlantic striped bass in New York’s marine waters. DEC is partnering with Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County to collect striped bass (Morone saxatilis) samples through December 2023.

This survey will collect samples of striped bass from the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound, and New York Harbor to perform contaminant analysis and biological studies that will inform commercial fishery restrictions, update New York State Department of Health (DOH) Fish Consumption Advisories and improve New York’s understanding of contaminants in the Atlantic striped bass stock.

Findings of elevated levels of contaminants in striped bass in the early 1990s caused New York to restrict the commercial harvest of striped bass to the area east of the mouth of Wading River Creek in Long Island Sound and east of the terminus of East Rockaway Inlet in the Atlantic Ocean. The last comprehensive assessment of PCB concentrations in New York’s marine district took place in 1994, with supplemental studies taking place as late as 2007.

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