Quote:
Originally Posted by numbskull
Actually, there is some truth to what he says. It does not take very many fish to have a successful YOY class if conditions are right, and I believe that genetic studies have shown that big YOY classes may be the result of several hundred fish spawning successfully in one small area. Presumably this is what "saved" the fishery back in the early 90's. On the other hand those few hundred fish are typically from the same school and are prone to being wiped out quite easily by intense focused fishing effort.....which is the norm these days when the remaining fish are located. The fewer schools, the less the chance one group hits it big...
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After rereading your post I'm beginning to wonder, Numby...
To carry it one step further, if the gene pool has become smaller (less diverse) due to the number of fish in a school that hits it big, is the resulting YOY class more prone to disease and abnormalities?
In other words, is the result weakened immune systems made worse by a lack of forage or a genetic predisposition toward certain diseases like microbacteriosis?
I'll be the first to admit that I may be stepping into water over my head and deep enough to make my hat float on issues involving dominant/recessive genes, but I do know a good bit about dog breeding and the inadvisability of dating one's sister or cousins
Or maybe it's still just a case of 'all of the above' in regards to breeding, forage, fishing pressure on the stock and the state of the marine environment in which they live
I think I'll have to brew another cup of starter fluid to see if this becomes any clearer...
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