A knowledge of the origin of the stock or stocks exploited in a fisheries is basic to sound management. A study to determine the racial structure of Atlantic Coast striped bass is under way and recent investigations of southeastern stocks have produced tentative concepts. The results should be considered preliminary because specimens from too few year classes are available for study. As used here the term implies a lower level of differentiation than that of a subspecies. The major published findings concerning racial problems to date are as follows: Merriam (1937 and 1941) and Vladykov and Wallace (1938) showed that some Chesapeake Bay striped bass, two years and older, undertake a non-spawning coastal migration northward in the spring. In the fall they return to Chesapeake Bay by approximately the same route although some migrants may enter and winter over in northern coastal rivers. Vladykov and Wallace (1952) indicated that different sub-races may make up the Chesapeake Bay race although adequate substantiating data are not presented. Raney and de Sylva (1953) showed that fin-ray counts in young striped bass were lower in samples from the Hudson River than those from Chesapeake Bay. The degree of differentiation was approximately 80 per cent, based on a character index combining dorsal, anal, and total pectoral soft-ray counts. They also suggested that the Hudson River may contain an upstream and a downstream population. Raney, Woolcott, and Mehring (1954) concluded that (a) the Hudson River race migrates to the western quarter of Long Island Sound and the region near the mouth of the Hudson River including the northeastern New Jersey shore and the south shore of Long Island east to Jones Beach; (b) fin-ray counts of young of the 1953 year class confirmed the findings based on other year classes concerning the racial separation of Chesapeake and Hudson River striped bass; (c) in fin-ray counts, samples from Rhode Island and northward are close to the Chesapeake race; (d) although shifts in the fin-ray counts occur from year to year the change is slight compared to the degree of differentiation between races and usually has little effect on the percentage of separation; and, (e) Albemarle Sound samples differ from South Carolina series in lateralline scale counts.