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Posts: 7068
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | What strain of fish are the fish in Georgian Bay, the Ottawa, and north of the border in Ontario waters such as LOTWs, Lac Seul, Eagle, etc. etc.? |
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| Some thoughts on the effects of stocking....
When "outside" fish have been stocked over an indigenous population, we've seen three different outcomes.
(1) The outside fish may interbreed with the native fish - such mixed stocks are said to be introgressed. Such mixed stocks may or may not have lower fitness.
(2) The outside fish may be ill-suited to reproducing in the new waters. In the case of salmonids and likely esocids, fry imprint and later home to their natal spawning grounds. Stocked fall fingerlings are in a sense "homeless" and are less likely (than the home-grown population) to find quality spawning sites when they mature.
Stocked fish may still impact the native fish. They can compete for forage with the indigenous (reproducing fish) and hence affect growth rates and result in a lower "effective population size"of breeding fish - perhaps a concern for native pop'n's facing multiple stressors.
Here's an account of some WI lake trout stocks:
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/news/on/2003/on2003610.htm
The take-home message here is that despite many decades of stocking from the Great Lakes sources, the indigenous, inland stocks were better suited to local conditions. The stocked fish made virtually no contribution to the fishery!
(3) Introduced fish may genetically swamp, and replace the native population.
Which of these scenarios describes the situation for muskellunge in the midwest, we won't know until the appropriate, high-resolution markers are developed and applied.
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A final note...I have been very impressed by the high quality of discussions on this forum and I agree with majority of posters that there is no quick genetic fix to improving our degraded fisheries.
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Posts: 32914
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Thank you sir. Your response is greatly appreciated. |
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