Juvenile Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata) winter survival and lipid accumulation from a laboratory mesocosm experiment (Oct 2022 to May 2023) with individuals collected from Long Island Sound

The northern stock of Black sea bass (BSB, Centropristis striata) has greatly expanded over the past decade, potentially due to warming Northwest Atlantic shelf waters affecting overwintering especially in juveniles. To gather better empirical data we quantified winter growth and lipid accumulation in BSB juveniles under a current ambient (2022/2023) seasonal temperature profile for eastern Long Island Sound, USA. Over the course of this study, winter mortality was low (< 16%) and average specific growth rate (SGR) followed seasonal trends (Fall → Winter → Spring) decreasing from 0.15 millimeters per day (mm d-1) (0.97 % wW d-1) to 0.01 mm d-1 (-0.03 % wW d-1), before rising to 0.03 mm d-1 (0.11 %wW d-1).