Conservation through Citizen Science: Population Demographics of Striped Bass in the Inner Bay of Fundy

The Inner Bay of Fundy striped bass (Morone saxatilis) population was assessed in 2012 as Endangered. Striped bass are culturally and economically important in the Maritimes. Conservation has an active and passionate following from First Nation members, recreational anglers, and commercial fishermen. A herring weir located in the Avon Estuary, Minas Basin, was employed as a fixed tagging site for striped bass which were caught as a non-target species in a commercial operation. Between 25 April and 12 August 2013, 1842 striped bass were caught over 106 tides, and 541 were tagged with uniquely coded dart tags realizing 49 recaptures. Morphometric information, and scale samples allowed for preliminary characterization of the population demographics. Tagging will continue until 2015 and will be enhanced through a recreational angler tagging program. Through community workshops, we train striped bass anglers in tagging protocols and techniques, and provide hands-on experience tagging live striped bass at the fixed tagging site. Our Tagging Ambassador program allows successful trainees to tag striped bass across broad spatial and temporal scales in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick supplementing our fixed site tagging, and providing additional data for characterization of this population.