Came across this in my daily Science Daily reading- keeping big fish

[Mr. Sandman]

Originally Posted by Nebe

I think a more valid point is that if you remove the largest fish from the gene pool and release all the small fish, your removing any fish that may be genetically geared to grow big. While some of the the smaller fish may be wired to be small..

That is utter nonsense! Does not work that way…all fish have the ability to grow based on the genes at birth (and the conditions they experience during life)

You are born with certain genetics, and they don't change with age.


That is kind of like saying, if we keep circumcising kids, eventually they will be born circumcised.

Taking big fish out of the population does not affect genetics.



Bronko, I think we need to be more conservative than that and save all of them, not just a selected class of fish. As I said, I think fishery experts have a terrible track record for getting it right, best to err on the side of conservation.
SB should be a Gamefish and cut all the management crap.

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

That is utter nonsense! Does not work that way…all fish have the ability to grow based on the genes at birth (and the conditions they experience during life)

You are born with certain genetics, and they don't change with age.


That is kind of like saying, if we keep circumcising kids, eventually they will be born circumcised.

Taking big fish out of the population does not affect genetics.

I still disagree. have you seen a gigantic kid in high school who looks like he is a senior in college?? I am sure there are fish that grow like that too- and if you kill one of these fish when they are just maturing they will not be able to pass on those genes- however the runt bass who take a long time to grow may have many chances to spawn-

[Nebe]

to make this simpler- WHen you remove all of the healty desirable stocks, only the runts will thrive.

[tattoobob]

Originally Posted by Nebe

I still disagree. have you seen a gigantic kid in high school who looks like he is a senior in college??

That's called inbreeding

[MarkB]

This is basic population biology - there are libraries full of this stuff. The bigger fish are older, and have been tested through all the challenges life puts out, and have survived. They are the best of the best, and they are the fish you want breeding. Small, young fish consist of the good and the not so good. Each year weeds out the less fit, so each year's class of fish is more likely to be more fit than the year younger.

For striped bass, and many other fish, the biggest fish are all females, and females are more important than males (sorry guys), so there's extra reason to release them.

[zimmy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]That is utter nonsense! Does not work that way…all fish have the ability to grow based on the genes at birth (and the conditions they experience during life)

Really not utter nonsense. If a fish is big, it has the genetics and behavior traits to get big. The more it reproduces, the more big fish there will potentially be. Targeting big fish selects for a population of smaller fish. Lots of evidence in nature for this.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by zimmy

. If a fish is big, it has the genetics and behavior traits to get big. The more it reproduces, the more big fish there will potentially be. Targeting big fish selects for a population of smaller fish. Lots of evidence in nature for this.

The same thing has happened with the Amur Tiger (Russia) and the easter North American Moose. Hunters hunted the large and left the smaller. Its called trophy hunting. It doesn't mean that the offspring will ALL be small but a smaller parent will on average have smaller offspring than a large parent.