Quote:
Originally Posted by Nebe
Ont thing that hasn't been mentioned is that every single fish over 30 lbs is a female. Males never grow that large, and 1 male can fertilize the eggs of dozens of females. Killing smaller fish makes sense because you are more opt to kill a male.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmy
It wasn't valid, but I was starting with numbers that you provided for three fish, which assumed all 28" fish will be female .
Three 28" females produce on average 7% more eggs than an average 40". But start harvesting and you won't get all females.
A 40" fish, almost certainly female
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I really thought I was done with this?
Another really important point is that the 28" fish won't live for 15 more years. The current rate of harvest is that almost 1/3 of breeding females removed per year. Without protection, the far majority don't make it to 40". Protecting them at 28" allows a great majority of those fish to get to large breeding size, which is the point of a 18-27" slot. With lots of big breeders pumping out eggs, plenty of smaller fish could be harvested and plenty would be left to grow to max size.