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The Disappearing Striper
At one time, almost all the striped bass in the Atlantic were hatched in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Then, about 30 years ago, the number of striped bass living near the bay started to drop. This worried biologists and environmentalists, but it also spelled trouble for the local economy. Many people made their living by fishing striped bass. By 1980, so many striped bass had disappeared that thousands of fishermen lost their jobs. What happened to all those striped bass? One of the main reasons for the drop in bass population was overfishing: so many fish were taken from the bay, they couldn't reproduce fast enough to keep up. But this was just part of the story. Pollution was also getting into the water and killing fish. And one of the threats came from Mother Nature: water temperatures along the Atlantic coast were rising, and striped bass couldn't survive in the warmer water. In the 1980s, laws were passed to protect the striped bass from the effects of pollution and overfishing. Today, striped bass are still threatened, but their numbers are slowly growing.