Rainbow trout are artificially maintained in a native warm water fishery due to the abnormally cold water discharges from Smith Lake. Since native fish and biota are unable to maintain a healthy fishery, a niche was created for survival of the rainbow trout. Stocking to restore a native species that has declined in numbers due to some habitat alteration . Alabama's striped bass stocking program exemplifies this kind of stocking. The life history of striped bass involves both fresh water and salt water.
Striped bass can live in rivers, estuaries and the ocean, but they migrate upriver for spawning.
In Alabama, and most states where striped bass occur naturally, rivers have been dammed, and spawning areas have been blocked and flooded. Although a landlocked, spawning population of striped bass now occurs in northeast Alabama, the present striped bass populations in Alabama rivers and reservoirs are largely the result of annual stocking by the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. Stocking to introduce a new species or new genetic strain . Florida largemouth bass and hybrid striped bass are instances of introducing new species or a different genetic strain. These fish have value in fishery management and have been stocked in various waters.