During the 1950s, scientists found that the striped bass, unlike most species, could begin and end its life cycle in freshwater. The striped bass became prized at fisheries throughout the southeast, but it underwent major change in the 1960s when researchers successfully developed a new variant of the fish: the hybrid striped bass. The hybrid striped bass was developed in 1965 by Bob Stevens. His cross was known as the Original Cross, consisting of a female striped bass and a male white bass. This cross is also known as a Palmetto Cross. Crossing the striped bass with the white bass, the new hybrids were faster, stronger and more durable than either or the original species.
People began eating the hybrid striped bass in the 1970’s but fisheries were slow to begin producing the new kind of fish. Hybrids are typically more expensive to maintain than non-hybrids and the aquatic farmers’ returns on investment were not guaranteed. In 1987, the NCRI launched a study which successfully proved that hybrid striped bass could be profitable and fairly easy to maintain in commercial ponds. The cultivation of the hybrid striped bass remains still popular today, with 10 states having large numbers of the species in their fisheries.
The hybrid striped bass was originally developed to become a sport fish to fill reservoirs for sport fishing due to the decline of the striped bass. Hybrid striped bass are now used as sportfish and foodfish. Hybrid striped bass are one of the fastest growing aquaculture sectors in the nation. Even though striped bass are recovering their numbers in the wild, there is still a demand for hybrid striped bass fish for foodstock.
Hybrid striped bass are raised using a technique that is called aquaculture. This involves fish being raised in high-quality bodies of water on a diet that lets them reach maturity in under 2 years by reaching sizes of 1-3 lbs, which is generally the range in which they are seen as being acceptable for market sale. Hybrid striped bass do not usually have a long period between being caught and being served. They are typically harvested, iced and shipped to site within a 24-hour period. This often makes them more appetizing than other fish, which might linger in cold storage for multiple days or weeks before being eaten!
Since its inception in the 1980’s, the hybrid striped bass has been an important part of the Atlantic Coast’s aquaculture industry. Indeed it proved such a popular aquaculture crop in the 1980s that by 1989 the entire hybrid striped bass industry was threatened due to overuse of water sources and poor environmental conditions! Today the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has been established to regulate the number and quality of annual hybrid striped bass harvests. By the year 2005, approximately 60% of all striped bass that were raised and harvested in the United States were raised in aquaculture farms located both in inland ponds and ocean nets. With new technologies and new regulations coming to the forefront to keep the industry strong, aquaculture farmers hope that the hybrid striped bass will continue to be an economic boon to future generations.
Over 80 percent of the hybrid striped bass produced in the US today are the Reciprocal Cross, which consists of a male striped bass and a female white bass. This cross is also known as the Sunshine Cross. It is easier to produce the Sunshine Cross than the Palmetto Cross because of the difficulty of obtaining and managing the large striped bass females for broodstocking purposes.