overwintering

Can adult black sea bass overwinter in Long Island Sound?

18 July 2025. We are thrilled to share that Marine & Coastal Fisheries (an AFS Journal) published today the 3rd chapter of Max Zavell's PhD research! The paper asks the simple but pertinent question

Can adult Black Sea Bass overwinter in Long Island Sound, USA?

The research followed the fate of 2 x 25 adult black sea bass that were angled in Long Island Sound (LIS) in fall 2022 and then kept at realistic winter inshore temperatures in two large flow-through tanks at the Rankin Seawater Laboratory of the University of Connecticut at Avery Point. The authors repeatedly measured survival, length- and weight growth, gonad investment and lipid contents of experimental and wild fish. They cautiously conclude that

"At present, overwintering in LIS appears possible but likely disadvantageous for Black Sea Bass, because offshore winter migration results in greater energy reserves and subsequent reproductive investment. In the future, however, warming coastal waters will continue to shorten the duration of unsuitable winter temperatures, which could become conducive to year-round inshore residency or partial migration patterns in the northern stock of Black Sea Bass."

The article was published Open Access. Congratulations, Max et al.!

Fig1-Survival-Temp-Figure
Dynamic overwinter temperature profile and survival for two black sea bass tanks in 2022/23

Male Black Sea Bass - April2021
Male Black Sea Bass (H.Baumann April 2021)


TAFS publishes our first Black Sea Bass experiment paper!

Fig01---BSB-CTDEEP-trawl-survey-count_new-copy
Black Sea Bass have rapidly increased in abundance particularly in Long Island Sound (LIS Trawl survey data).

 

27 December 2023. We are excited to announce that Transactions of the American Fisheries Society just published our first large experimental study on Black Sea Bass overwintering! The work is part of Max Zavell's PhD research and reports on temperature- and food-ration dependent overwinter growth in Black Sea Bass juveniles from Long Island Sound. We reared juveniles individually in two separate experiments, one applying three static temperature treatments (6, 12, 19°C) and another using a seasonal temperature profile to mimic the thermal experience of juveniles emigrating to their offshore overwintering grounds coupled with various food treatments.

We found that Black Sea Bass juveniles showed positive overwinter growth even at temperatures as low as 6°C. However, the best temperature for growth, survival, and lipid accumulation was 12°C, which is close to the presumed conditions at offshore overwintering habitats of this species.

Congratulations, Max, to this great paper! Also, congrats to undergraduate student Matthew Mouland, who helped tirelessly with the rearing and has now deservedly become a co-author.



Fig03---Exp1-GRTL-SGR-Cons
(A) total length (TL) growth (mm/day), (B) weight-specific growth (%/day), and (C) growth efficiency (%) of juvenile Black Sea Bass reared at 6°C (blue circles), 12°C (green circles), and 19°C (orange circles) for 42–78 days. Each symbol represents an individual fish.

BlackSeaBass_Mar2022_01
Juvenile Black Sea Bass rearing setup in March 2022 in the Rankin Lab. Each white bucket contained an individual fish.