I saw someplace where and I think it was Maine that asked recreational fishermen to drop off the striped bass stomachs at designated tackle shops and somebody from the state collected them for analysis of stomach contents.
Yes — that was Maine.
University of Maine researchers (Staudinger Lab / graduate student Abby Remick) run a striped bass foraging study and ask recreational anglers who keep a legal slot fish (28–31″ total length) to donate the filleted rack, including the stomach and other organs. Anglers keep the fillets. (LINK)
Partner drop-off spots include tackle shops and related sites with freezer space:
– Saco Bay Tackle (Saco)
– Webhannet River Boatyard (Wells)
– Fishermen’s Edge (Edgecomb)
– Darling Marine Center (Walpole)
– Maine DMR office in West Boothbay Harbor
You can also text for pickup. The Maine DMR recreational newsletter has promoted it as “Don’t Toss It — Donate It.” The team uses the stomach contents to see what stripers eat in Maine waters (green crabs in rivers, sand eels/mackerel/herring/menhaden farther out, occasional small lobsters, etc.), which is meant to help managers look at predator and prey together.
Project page: https://umaine.edu/staudingerlab/projects/striper-diet-study/
Contact listed there: 401-651-1034 or abrielle.remick@maine.edu.
I also saw a YouTube video of them on a boat catching stripers and flushing out stomach contents. Can you please find that video?
That matches the UMaine team’s own clip.
Official short (research team):
[Striped Bass Stomach Sampling: UMaine Research Summer 2025 (LINK)
Channel: UMaine Striped Bass!
~30 seconds. They meet a charter captain, catch stripers, pump/flush the stomachs on the boat, and release the fish. Slot-limit keepers can be donated as racks. Posted August 2025. Their project page also links this as a YouTube short.
Longer trip video (angler + researchers on a boat):
[WHAT Are Striped Bass Eating? “Understanding the Foraging Ecology of Stripers in the Gulf of Maine”] (LINK)
Channel: Fishing With Boyt (~12 minutes). Abby Remick and teammates go out fishing; you see the science work on the water, including sampling. Description includes the same study website and contact.
The short is the one produced by the lab itself. The Boyt video is a full charter-style look at the same work.