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Tournament‐associated Mortality in Black Bass
Author(s) -
Wilde Gene R.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1548-8446
pISSN - 0363-2415
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8446(1998)023<0012:tmibb>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - tournament , mortality rate , demography , positive correlation , negative correlation , zoology , biology , mathematics , medicine , combinatorics , sociology
I compiled estimates of tournament‐associated mortality in black basses ( Micropterus spp.) for 130 tournaments held between 1972 and 1996. Initial mortality decreased significantly (P < 0.0001) between the 1970s (19.5%), and the 1980s (6.6%) and 1990s (6.5%). I found no difference in initial mortality (P = 0.9885) between the 1980s and 1990s. Delayed mortality was 10.4% in the 1970s based on limited data. Estimates of delayed and total mortality for the 1980s (20.9% and 26.2%, respectively) and 1990s (23.3% and 28.3%, respectively) were not significantly different (P ≥ 0.7222). Thus, no evidence exists of a decline in initial, delayed, or total mortality since at least the mid‐1980s. This suggests that recommendations made by previous researchers for reducing tournament‐associated mortality were disregarded or ineffective. Meta‐analysis of correlations shows a strong positive relationship between water temperature, and initial ( r = 0.51 ± 0.00) and delayed mortality ( r = 0.36 ± 0.000). There was a strong negative relationship between tournament size and initial mortality ( r = −0.54 ± 0.000), and a moderately strong positive relationship with delayed mortality ( r = 0.30 ± 0.000). I also found a moderately strong but nonsignificant positive relationship between fish size and initial mortality ( r = 0.31 ± 0.197), and a moderately weak negative relationship with delayed mortality ( r = −0.13 ± 0.056). Nonlinear regression of initial, delayed, and total mortality on water temperature for tournaments conducted during 1980–1996 explained 20%–30% of the variation in mortality. Initial mortality appears to be compensatory in its effect on total mortality. Estimates of initial mortality alone provide no information on the magnitude of total tournament‐associated mortality; therefore, both initial and delayed mortality must be measured. These results also suggest that a substantial portion of tournament‐associated mortality is the result of injuries sustained during hooking, playing, and landing of fish.