Can you find White Perch in the ocean?

White perch belong to the Family Percichthyidae, of which seven species exist in North America.  It is part of the species that also includes striped bass and yellow bass.  And though the White Perch is considered a game fish, it is actually not found anywhere in the ocean (unlike its relative, the striped bass).  Instead, it lives primarily in estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay.  They can be found in lakes and fresh bodies of water  from Nova Scotia all the way to South Carolina, but are most abundant from the Hudson River to the Chesapeake Bay.  White perch are considered semi-anadromous because they actually migrate from saltier areas of the bay into the fresher portions to spawn during the spring.  In the Chesapeake Bay (where the largest population of white perch is located), it is one of the most common fish.  White perch may reach a length of up to 19 inches, but are more commonly found around 7 to 10 inches (usually weighing from 8 ounces to 1 pound).  First established in all five Great Lakes and their surrounding states, white perch can now also be found in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska and New Hampshire. White perch have been stocked intentionally in other areas for sport fishing. Their native range is the Atlantic Slope drainages from St. Lawrence-Lake Ontario drainage in Quebec south to the Peedee River of South Carolina.  Though it is a panfish that is highly regarded as a food fish in the Eastern United States, white perch is not often exploited as a game fish and is generally regarded as undesirable, especially when over population in fresh waters causes the species to become stunted. 

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