Management of Forage Fishes in Impoundments of the Southern United States

Abstract

Forage‐fish management in southern ponds began in the early 1940s, and in reservoirs in the 1950s. Need for management arises from situations of both too many and too few prey for existing predators. The principal forage fishes stocked have been shads and silversides in reservoirs, sunfishes in ponds. Recent advances have been made in predator‐prey assessment methodologies, with respect to both the need for and the effects of management, but these techniques have not yet been applied widely. Management of forage fishes has included direct control of forage populations with toxicants, drawdown of water levels to increase forage availability, supplemental stocking and diversification of predators, and predator harvest regulations. Forage‐fish management has progressed from forage control to forage utilization and predator management, which makes efficient use of excess forage. Forage and predator species have been introduced with little evaluation of ecological relationships. Additional research must be done if management is to be carried out with predictable results; in the interim, management must proceed on the basis of existing principles.

Survival, reproduction, and recruitment of gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) at the northwestern edge of its native range

“…The gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) is a highly fecund, warmwater species found throughout the southern USA (Noble 1981). Its native range encompasses most of the eastern continental USA and extends from Florida to New Mexico in the south and as far north as North Dakota in the west and New York in the east (Heidinger 1983;Pflieger 1997).…”

“…Its native range encompasses most of the eastern continental USA and extends from Florida to New Mexico in the south and as far north as North Dakota in the west and New York in the east (Heidinger 1983;Pflieger 1997). In southern reservoirs, the gizzard shad often grows rapidly, reaches high densities and tends to produce fewer offspring which limits their utility as a prey species (Swingle 1950;Smith 1959;Noble 1981;Michaletz 1998). However, in the northern portion of its range, high winter mortality leads to lower overall adult population abundance (Porath 2006).…”

Larval gizzard shad characteristics in Lake Oahe, South Dakota: a species at the northern edge of its range

“…However, when compared to cool water recreational fishes that spawn earlier in the spring, larval competition with gizzard shad is minimal because they are rarely of the same size class while competing for zooplankton resources (Roseman et al 1996). Fast-growing larval gizzard shad populations have been associated with reduced use by piscivores due to age-0 shad quickly moving past gape limitations of predators (Noble 1981;Adams and DeAngelis 1987). However, Lake Oahe shad populations have remarkably slower growth compared to other populations within South Dakota (Wuellner et al 2008) and the Midwest (Dettmers and Stein 1992;DeVries and Stein 1992;Stein et al 1995).…”

“…In some systems, gizzard shad produce slow-growing individuals that are vulnerable to fish predation (Storck 1986;Michaletz 1997Michaletz , 1998Allen et al 1999). In contrast, in systems where age-0 shad growth rates are high, shad quickly reach sizes that fishes are unable to exploit (Noble 1981). Hence, the growth rate of age-0 gizzard shad has a strong influence on the quantity and timing of prey availability for predators.…”

Seasonal Consumptive Demand and Prey Use by Stocked Saugeyes in Ohio Reservoirs

“…Sport fish stocking and recruitment can greatly influence reservoir ecosystems; therefore, matching predator stocking density with prey fish availability is an important challenge that has most successfully been achieved through the stocking of predators (Carlander 1958;Noble 1981;Stewart et al 1981;DeVries and Stein 1990;Eggold and Horns 2001;Aprahamian et al 2003) as opposed to prey manipulations.…”