Undersized Stripedbass openly sold

[Swimmer]

I knew farm raised stripers are readily available all over the country and I gave that aspect serious thought before I posted my thoughts on the "Globe" magazine article. I appreciate all the info that ZACS and others posted in reply. As we all know many stripers use to be sold in the back doors of various restaurants and markets. Most if not all of those fish were of "size" though, which makes no difference with regard to the illegal selling of stripers, but their is a little hypocritical romanticism involved at least if the fish sold illegally were 30", 40", or bigger. One can conjure up a scene where an old pickup truck backs up to the rear door of a non descipt restaurant and sells a few fish to the owner just after sunrise. Hopefully stipers sold in any market are legal.

Where I have seen farmed stripers in the Whole Foods Markets the fish are substantially larger than what was pictured. It seems to me to sell a farm raised twelve inch stripers is just breaking even on the investment at best. For what it takes to breed and then grow in one year a twelve fish and then sell it seems ludicris. That also seems like a great cover to hide small stripers that were poached. I still have concerns though especially if no one ever checks the retail merchants who are licensed to sell any fish. Their is too much here left unchecked.

[Saltheart]

I don't know the exact numbers but i once saw a program on fish farming and it turns out that the most economical size to sell is faily small. I guess its based on the max harvest pounds vs the feed cost and available space and turn overs. . For some fish species its only 9 inches.