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Tournament-associated Mortality in Black Bass

Gene R. Wilde

Fisheries, Vol. 23 No. 10, Oct. 1998

Presented By:

Holly A. Campbell

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130 tournaments, 1972-1996

• Objectives:

– Determine average rates of initial, delayed, and total mortality associated with tournaments

– Determine whether any changes in magnitude of sources of mortality has occurred since the 1970’s

– Combine results from from independent studies to assess overall effects of water temperature, tournament size, and fish size on mortality

– Model relationship between water temperature and initial, delayed and total mortality

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Methods

Calculated mean, initial and delayed mortality for three

Periods:– 1970-1979– 1980-1989– 1990-1996

Used ANOVA to determine if mortality varied among periods, and to find correlation between water temp., fish size, and tournament size

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Major Findings

• Initial mortality of tournament black bass has decreased from 19.5%-6.5% since 1970’s

• Delayed mortality likely decreased between 1970-1980’s, based on large decrease in initial mortality

• No evidence of decrease in delayed or total mortality between 1980-1990’s.

• Decreases in tournament mortality also supported by angler self-reports.

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Recommendations

• Future studies should include descriptions of all aspects of tournaments (sponsors, length of fishing day, length of contest, etc.) in addition to mortality rates, water temp., etc.

• Studies of water conditions (bad weather, rough waters) should be considered.

• Results of individual tournaments should be reported independently rather than summaries of many tournaments