Striped bass are not lazy

How many times have you heard someone say that striped bass are lazy!. We, as humans, love to give human terms to observed animal behavior. The term for this is anthropomorphism. The observed behavior of stripers is better described in terms of caloric efficiency. Nature has created cruel and demanding rules: evolve learning patterns to eat more calories then you burn or you will die! Animals have developed learned techniques that are actually transmitted genetically. Ever wonder how a female dog knows how to clean her puppies off as she gives birth, never having witnessed this event before in her life. Learned behaviors such as this are actually transmitted in the genes (DNA). This applies to fish too, and these learned hunting behaviors, change as the fish grows. Young stripers forage alot of crustacean, shrimp, mullusks, etc and are active chasers of small fish species like sand eels, mummichogs, and silversides. Their small statures make them efficient at hunting for small creatures, and chasing them when indicated. Larger stripers become mostly piscivorous (fish eaters) but hunt them in a stalking manner because it is more calorically efficient to do it that way, not because they are lazy. A large striper would burn too many calories, hunting like a young striper would. Large stripers will be seen chasing schools of calorically rich fish like adult bunker. Young stripers hunt in areas like the rips, where their low weight bodies can hunt effectively without burning excessive calories. Large cows are more commonly caught in the bay because they can hunt, burning less calories in the slower moving waters. In human terms, witness the way a big fat guy fights compared to a slim agile fellow. The slim guy does his Mohammed Ali shuffle, sticking and weaving. The heavy dude, stalks, waits for his shot, and knocks you out. So the next time someone tries to convince you that stripers are lazy.............just tell them stripers have evolved learned hunting methods to make them calorically efficient hunting machines!