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Dispersal of Young‐of‐the‐Year Hatchery Striped Bass in the Hudson River
Author(s) -
Wells Alan W.,
Randall Donna M.,
Dunning Dennis J.,
Young John R.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
north american journal of fisheries management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1548-8675
pISSN - 0275-5947
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8675(1991)011<0381:doyoty>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - hatchery , biological dispersal , fishery , bass (fish) , morone saxatilis , biology , fish <actinopterygii> , population , fish hatchery , fish farming , aquaculture , demography , sociology
From 1983 through 1987, 1.3 million fingerling striped bass Morone saxatilis were stocked into the Hudson River to mitigate the impact on fish populations of once‐through cooling systems at four power plants. The fractional contribution of hatchery fish to the Hudson River population was to be estimated from recaptures of fish tagged with binary‐coded wires. An assumption of the mark–recapture model used for this purpose is that wild and hatchery striped bass have an equal probability of being sampled. To test this assumption, we examined tag returns from a riverwide sampling program during the first fall season following release of hatchery fish. Significant differences in the ratio of wild to hatchery fish over time, between river regions, and between sampling gears indicated that young‐of‐the‐year hatchery fish were not randomly intermixed with age‐0 wild fish. The differences in catch ratios appear to stem from slow dispersal of hatchery fish from the release sites. Average dispersal distance of recaptured fish during the first 100 d after release was about 4 km. The differences in catch ratios could also be explained by differences in catchability or mortality of hatchery and wild fish.