Fluctuations in year-class size of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) are believed related to early-lifestage mortality. Factors associated with food and feeding of larvae were studied in the laboratory as they relate to mortality, point of no return, development, and energetics. Mortality of feeding larvae was directly related to density of Artemia salina nauplii. Highest mortality coincided with total oil globule absorption. Starved larvae lived an average 31 days after fertilization and did not display a well-defined point of no return. Growth and differentiation directly correlated with food density. Starvation affected the rate of ossification and altered cells and tissues as early as 7 days after hatching. Most of the endogenous energy of newly fertilized eggs is in oil. The rate of oil utilization was inversely related to food density. Daily food rations were estimated after ingestion and digestion rates were determined, and increased with larva size, age, and prey density.Between 1879 and 1882, 432 juvenile striped bass (Morone saxatilis) from the Navesink River, New Jersey, were released into the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. The transplant was so successful that, within 10 years, the commercial fishery landed 554 t (Skinner 1962). In less than 100 years, the Pacific range of striped bass has expanded south to 30 km below the United States-Mexico border and north to Barkley Sound, British Columbia (Miller and Lea 1972). Over the intervening years, sport and commercial catch records have indicated considerable fluctuations in the Pacific striped bass population (Smith and Kato 1979), and present estimates place the population at 33 to 40% of its peak 1960 estimate of 3.0 to 4.5 x 10 • fish. Recent field data indicate that mortality during the first 60 days after hatching determines the size of the adult population. Further, abundance of young-of-the-year juveniles is directly related to river outflows and diversion volumes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (Chadwick et al. 1977). However, aside from direct export of eggs and larvae out of the estuary via water diversions, the actual causes of mortality remain undetermined. As part of a cooperative research program involving the