2.8 million stocked

[JABIII]

Posted on Sun, Jul. 15, 2007

New stocking strategy for stripers takes effect

By PAT ROBERTSON - patrob@upthecreek.net

MORE THAN 2.8 MILLION striped bass fingerlings have been released into the Santee Cooper system in a new stocking method that biologists hope will help increase the survival rate of the young fish and boost the lakes’ flagging striper population.

“We released almost half a million more little stripers than we normally do and we used 46 different stocking points this year, where we used to dump the fish in about a third that number of spots,” said Scott Lamprecht, DNR Regional fisheries biologist. Many of the fish were larger than normally stocked, giving them a potential head start in the wild.

The annual stocking is intended to supplement the natural reproduction that historically maintained the Santee Cooper striper population, which has lagged seriously in recent years.

Biologists and fishermen hope the increased release with larger fingerlings in the revised stocking regimen is a small step in the potential recovery of the once-famous Santee Cooper striped bass fishery.

“I appreciate them putting more stripers in the lakes, because that might help in the long run,” said Doug Allen of Bonneau, president of the Santee Cooper Guides Association. The association is on record in favor of reducing the limit in the lakes from five stripers per day with a 21-inch minimum size limit to the first three caught in any day with no size limit. Current regulations also allow anglers to keep two stripers below 21 inches during July and August.

Earlier this year biologists conducted a series of meetings across the area bounded by the lakes to get input from fishermen on what approach to take to return Santee Cooper striper fishing to the glory days when it drew fishermen from across the nation. Suggestions from those meetings are being considered for possible legislative changes in regulations next year.

At those meetings Lamprecht told the fishermen that striper recruitment — reaching a harvestable size — depends on good water flows, not only for development of naturally-spawned eggs, but for the nutrients that get washed off the watersheds and flushed out of the swamps that provide food for young stripers.

“We’ve been behind the eight-ball over the last eight years because environmental conditions have not been conducive to striped bass reproduction, resulting in poor age structure. So many of the fish get harvested at a younger age,” Lamprecht said, adding:

“Even though we’ve not had a major drought, with the exception of 2003, water flows have been way below average.”

However, he said, there was a strong surge of water flow early this spring that, while it did not last, probably added nutrients to the system.

“We’ve done some preliminary seining (of stripers) and it’s hard to determine the result, but we are seeing some good growth so we are very optimistic,” he said.

The extra striper fingerlings available for stocking were the result of excellent production at the state hatchery at Dennis Wildlife Center in Bonneau, which took on significant importance when the federal hatchery at Orangeburg suffered a severe shortfall in striper production Lamprecht said.

“The Dennis Center produced more fish, they had better survival when they were stocked in the ponds and they were bigger fish than usual. That should give them a better chance of surviving in the wild,” he said.

However, Lamprecht cautioned, that even with a good start and more numbers of fish being added to the population, survival to legal harvest size will depend on environmental conditions.

“If we don’t get good water flows, with nutrients washed into the system, we won’t have better survival. But we are trying to maximize the potential for recruitment,” he said.

[Claimer]

then they made the arkansas a game fish. I don't understand.

[Green Heads Only]

Here's an interesting view of the subject that we've never heard before

Rediversion of striped bass
By DR. JOHN RHENEY-T&D Outdoors Columnist

We have all been pondering the apparent severe decline of our striped bass fisheries over the last few years. We look for causes and places to put the blame. No answers are forthcoming and people that I have always viewed as experts are as dumbfounded as they were of the white bass decline of the last decade. The DNR issues statements, which seems to indicate they are as bumfuzzled as the rest of us. Many blame the introduced flathead catfish and the cormorant populations for the declines while others try to put the blame on overfishing. It is obvious that the effluent waters coming out of the Columbia waste treatment plant and it's associated change in the phosphate and pH content of the water that comes downstream coupled with the slow release of water during the summer months has had it's negative effect on the survivability of eggs that are released in the Congaree and Santee Rivers.

Make no doubt about it. There is plenty of blame to go around. My childhood friend McKie Green is known more for his water fowling expertise than his fishing prowess, but he keeps up with all current events related to out door culture. He recently dug up an article in the South Carolina Wildlife magazine (issue May-June 1985) and a more recent DNR publication (circa 2001) on the rediversion of the Santee River. The mission of this rediversion is to reduce silting of Charleston harbor through the Cooper River (whatever Charleston and Columbia needs is alright with us). The concerns that the DNR had about the Corps' project in the 1970s and early 1980s has apparently come to pass and after the year 2000 (according to the information brochure on the St. Stephens project) they are still looking for new alternatives to undo what they have done to the striper and bait fish populations. Let's delve into the history of these lake structures a little.

The Santee River was dammed in 1941 and Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie were created. The water from the Santee River was diverted into the much smaller Cooper River. A lock was installed on the Cooper to allow boat traffic into the lakes from Charleston. The operation of this lock allowed the new and totally unanticipated land locked Striped bass and the baitfish that they followed (namely blueback herring and American shad) to get into the lake system. The increased water flow down the Cooper enticed these fish to line up at the locks entrance and await a ride several times a day to the upper waters of Lake Moultrie The striped bass fishery stabilized and became healthy then THE problem occurred. The Cooper River was now carrying the combined sediments of the Santee and the Cooper into Charleston harbor, which caused shoals and interfered with boat traffic. The Cooper River Rediversion project was proposed in the late 1950s by the US Army Corps of Engineers to solve the problem. By 1985 the majority of the water from the Santee River was being released through a new dam near St. Stephens that also incorporated a fish lock. The result was that 15,600 cubic feet per second (cfs) was diverted from the Cooper back to the Santee though a canal. The Cooper was slowed to 3000 cfs and the Santee was upped to 27,000 cfs. This new fish lock was much smaller than the one created when the Pinopolis locks opened and closed on the Cooper River. The hope was that the fish would migrate to the now much larger flow in the Santee River bed. It was obvious they would abandon the now weak flow of the Cooper.

The article that appeared in the South Carolina Wildlife magazine in 1985 had this title "WATCH ON THE SANTEE-Rediversion of the Santee Cooper lakes' flow from Charleston's Cooper to the Santee River is finally complete. For our world-famous landlocked stripers and a multimillion dollar sport fishing industry, the final vigil has just begun."

That was certainly an ominous title! Biologists were not certain the striper fishery would survive despite the $1.5 million fish lock. The trick was to entice the blueback herring into changing their travel plans from the Cooper to the now faster flowing Santee on up the Atlantic coast. The DNR was the first to voice concerns over the proposed new dam. The DNR had found that only about half the number of baitfish were migrating the Santee as the Cooper (3 1/2 million versus about six million). Would the fish change their habits? Would the Corp of Engineers create new fish control structures if they didn't? The Corp granted the DNR $50,000 to $100,000 per year to monitor the impact on the fish apparently as an afterthought. There were no guarantees. Even with the restocking program (which is only moderately successful) it would be 10 years before the end result could be judged. This is about the time it takes stripers to reach reproductive size and age.

Fast forward to the period between 1995 and 2000. After rediversion the numbers of fish that passed into the lake drastically declined. Numerous modifications to the fish lift have taken place to restore fish passage to pre-Rediversion numbers. So far all this has been in vain. In 2000 the most recent modification was made that allowed a greater volume of flow through a downstream bypass away from the noise and churning of the turbines. More modifications were in the works to increase the number of fish that could be lifted through the locks. It should be noted that local gizzard shad and threadfin shad numbers have been at acceptable levels in the lake system until recent years but they are not as preferred a food species as the anadromous (migrating, salt water species) herring and shad that stripers follow.

So while we fishermen have stumbled through the dark looking for causes as to why the once world-renowned, Santee landlocked striped bass fishery is officially in shambles maybe the main cause has been there all along. Maybe the people that really know are silently letting the rest of us debate about cormorants, catfish, water pHs, and over-fishing. Maybe the answer to the sudden disappearance of an entire white bass fishery 15 years ago is not really so much a mystery. Perhaps the answer has been in front of us all along. It's not some hidden, delicate environmental balance, but a 100-foot tall concrete barrier that prohibits bait fish and striper alike from entering into the lake system. Perhaps the DNR was right all along, but they don't want to jeopardize the funding and their relationship with the perpetrators (the Army Corp). Last but not least, in this day and time, maybe it was a conscious decision to sacrifice the lakes, striped bass fishery to keep the costs of dredging Charleston harbor to a minimum. Surely, it costs more to force a harbor system to be something it is not (deep) than the fishery gives back in annual revenues. Maybe there is no clear-cut answer just more questions.
As of this writing my two inquiries with the SCDNR have elicited no response.

http://www.thetandd.com/articles/200...cc6e7499903180

[Stripa Swipa]

Originally posted by Green Heads Only:
Even with the restocking program (which is only moderately successful) it would be 10 years before the end result could be judged. This is about the time it takes stripers to reach reproductive size and age.

Females reach sexual maturity at 4 to 5 years. Males sooner than that.
The sad fact is that conspiracies derived from anger and ego with little fact erode the political capital that will be necessary for a real solution.

[Claimer]

He just hit the nail on the head. When they stopped the flow down the cooper the lakes died.