So Rossfly, what's your history of fishing the A.R. and what are your observations over the decades about the populations of wildlife in the water? How about the Russian river, the Eel river, the Smith river, the San Lorenzo river, Feather and Yuba rivers? Have you seen the movie "Rivers of a Lost Coast"? Because in it there's plenty of photo, video and witness interview evidence that stripers were an integral part of the most successful runs of salmon and steelhead in the world.
By any chance do you have ties to the farming industry? Have a friend or family who grows rice? You're ignoring the point about farmers' obvious motivation to defame striped bass, and their propaganda war in the legislatures.
http://www.kiene.com/forums/showthre...06-09-11-14-00
There's no secret the claim that stripers are a harm to the ecosystem came from farmers and why. I believe that claim is obviously false, you haven't provided evidence to support it. It doesn't become more true from repetition. (stripers are everywhere, it's ok to harvest them?) You seem to ask this side of the debate for proof, which may be false logic because it's impossible to prove a negative.
No one calls stripers in the eastern rivers and deltas the I-word because they're "native". I'm pretty sure stripers participate in the ecosystem in the east by interacting with very similar other species like (by eating salmon smolt and many types of baitfish) the same way they do here. Would you agree that stripers co-existed in beneficial harmony with salmon and steelhead for more than 120 years after they were introduced in the west?
Also I'd argue it's understood that species move and spread around continents all the time since the beginning of time, and often the move is caused by other species. That's how stripers got out west, because of humans and I don't think science-like descriptions of native or invasive come with any inherent million year time minimum.