FWC discusses bass-stocking issues
Fish Busters' Bulletin
Monday, November 01, 2010
Media contact: Bob Wattendorf
Stock more fish! That is one of the most common
suggestions from the angling public when it comes to ideas about
how to improve recreational fishing. Oh, if it was that easy.
The Florida Bass Conservation Center (FBCC) is the
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC)
state-of-the-art freshwater hatchery in Sumter County. The FBCC
recently hosted a Largemouth Bass Stocking Workshop to discuss past
research and recent additions to the body of knowledge that can
help guide future stocking and research efforts. The FWC and
university experts met to discuss how to integrate hatchery fish
into plans to ensure sustainable, quality bass fishing.
As early as 1948, Florida fisheries biologists
realized that stocking small fingerling bass (about 1-1.5") into
lakes or rivers with existing fish populations did not generate
substantial improvements for anglers. Part of the problem is how
many of these small fish are immediately consumed by predators or
die from stress, and another part deals with the fact that bass are
very prolific spawners. Each pair of spawning bass needs only a few
of their hundreds of thousands of eggs to grow to adulthood to
maintain the population.
Consequently the FWC and most state fisheries
agencies typically stock only small Phase-I fingerlings into lakes
that recently reflooded, experienced a major fish kill or lost a
year class (which means a spawning season was disrupted often by
unusual weather patterns), and where adequate habitat exists to
sustain bass.
However in recent years, the FWC has pioneered
several new bass-rearing technologies at the FBCC and through other
adjunct programs. These include developing production techniques to
rear advanced Phase-II fingerling bass on artificial diets,
including training them to eat pelleted food, developing new diets
customized to their nutritional needs, and then retraining them to
take live prey fish prior to being stocked.
It is clear from recent angler surveys pertaining
to the draft Black Bass Management Plan (see
MyFWC.com/BassPlan_Survey) that the public thinks the FWC should
stock more bass.
There are clear-cut benefits to stocking bass under
specific conditions, such as after a major fish kill, when a new
water body is flooded (such as water storage areas and irrigation
ponds), or when Florida's famous sinkholes refill. However, more
research is needed to improve the return on investment when bass
are stocked into lakes, with established bass or other predators,
to ensure enough stocked fish are caught by anglers to justify the
expenditure. In Florida, most money for fish management comes from
recreational fishing licenses, excise taxes on fishing tackle
(Federal Aid in Sportfish Restoration) and sale of "Go Fishing"
largemouth bass conservation tags for vehicles and trailers. So the
FWC is determined to make certain our fish resources and anglers
benefit from every dollar.
The workshop concluded that more research is needed
to refine timing of when bass are stocked, to determine the most
cost-efficient size to stock them, and to study hatchery rearing
techniques and stocking protocols. For specific genetic concerns
associated with stocking, FWC biologists offered the following
pro-con considerations.
On the pro-side, many biologists think the extra
cost and time associated with addressing genetic issues is
justified. After all, the Florida largemouth bass is a subspecies
with unique characteristics that make it the premier freshwater
sport fish in North America. Since stocking impacts may go
undetected for generations and may be impossible to reverse, this
group of scientists feels a conservative approach should be
followed.
On the other hand - the "con" side - some managers
feel that controlling production costs and having more bass
available for stocking should be more important than genetic
integrity. Genetic restrictions also prohibit stocking pure Florida
largemouth bass into North Florida, since a hybrid between the
northern and Florida largemouth naturally exists in that area. This
could limit trophy bass production for North Florida, since other
southeastern states attribute trophy production to their Florida
bass-stocking programs.
In 2011, Florida freshwater fish hatcheries are
slated to produce and stock nearly 5 million fish, including
Phase-I and Phase-II largemouth bass, bluegill, redear, crappie,
catfish, striped bass and sunshine bass. Those fish will add
tremendously to the enjoyment of more than 1.4 million anglers
fishing the fresh waters of the "Fishing Capital of the World."
Each year and each day, FWC fisheries biologists are working to
make that fishing better. If you'd like to comment on bass-stocking
issues, take the brief survey at http://bit.ly/LMBstock.
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