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Estimating Abundance of Age‐0 Striped Bass in the Delaware River by Using Marked Hatchery Fish
Author(s) -
Burton William H.,
Weisberg Stephen B.
Publication year - 1994
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(1994)014<0347:eaoasb>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - bass (fish) , fishery , hatchery , morone saxatilis , mark and recapture , population , fish <actinopterygii> , biology , morone , geography , environmental science , demography , sociology
A mark‐recapture study was conducted in the Delaware River during the fall of 1990 to estimate population size of age‐0 striped bass Morone saxatilis . Approximately 95,000 hatchery‐reared fish were individually marked with coded wire tags and released in 15 separate batches at 10 different locations within the nursery area. Handling mortality and tag loss were estimated through the use of in situ enclosures. Recapture efforts yielded 53 tagged fish from approximately 300 seine and trawl samples. A total population of 972,937 age‐0 striped bass was estimated by means of the Petersen method and an area‐weighted volumetric expansion for upriver areas. Analysis of the assumptions of the Petersen method indicated that releasing tagged fish over a broad area and randomizing recapture methods are the most important steps to take in estimating population size ofage‐0 striped bass. This study demonstrated the logistical and technical feasibility of using hatchery‐reared striped bass in mark–recapture studies to obtain information relevant to fishery management that cannot be obtained by other methods.