The common practice of throwing the little ones back could be harming future fish populations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Transcript
The common practice of throwing the little ones back could be harming future fish populations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley reports:
Anglers and commercial fisheries are often only allowed to take fish that are larger than a certain size. So the smaller fish are left to reproduce. And researchers say that means their offspring will also be smaller, and not as healthy.
David Conover is a marine scientist at Stony Brook University. He says the larger fish are vital to the overall health of their species.
“The eggs that these big, old females produce tend to be of higher quality. The egg diameters may be a little larger, the yolk that is supplied to the eggs seems to be more rich, the larvae hatch at a larger size, they have a higher survival.”
Conover says fish populations can be harmed in as little as three or four generations. And it can take much longer for a population to rebound – if it can at all.
He says possible solutions could include different rules that protect larger fish, and new limits on where fish can be harvested.
For the GLRC, I’m Christina Shockley.