Components of Mortality within a Black Bass High‐Release Recreational Fishery

• Published in: Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (1900) 2016-05, Vol.145 (3), p.578-588
• Main Authors: Kerns, Janice A., Allen, Micheal S., Hightower, Joseph E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Freshwater; Micropterus salmoides
• ISSN: 0002-8487; 1548-8659
• DOI: 10.1080/00028487.2015.1131742

Mortality after release can have a substantial impact on high‐release recreational sport fishes, such as Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides. However, little work has explored the cumulative impact of catch‐and‐release mortality at the population level. We used a combined telemetry–tag return approach to estimate all components of total mortality, including instantaneous natural mortality (M) and instantaneous fishing mortality (F), for Florida Largemouth Bass M. salmoides floridanus (hereafter, Florida Bass) within a popular fishing lake in northern Florida. Fishing mortality was subdivided into harvest (FH), recreational catch‐and‐release (FR), and tournament catch‐and‐release (FT) components. Over 2 years, we monitored the fates of 181 Florida Bass that were tagged with high‐reward external dart tags and internal radio transmitters. An additional 345 fish were tagged with variable‐reward external tags. Annual FH values were seasonal, with an increase in FH occurring in the spring of both years; FH ranged from 0.17 (SD = 0.04) in the first year to 0.60 (SD = 0.09) in the second year. Estimated mean FT ranged from 0.04 to 0.07, and mean FR ranged from 0.03 to 0.05. Estimates of M were also seasonal, with annual M ranging from 0.29 (SD = 0.06) to 0.46 (SD = 0.09), and were within the expected range relative to other published estimates. Our results showed that although the total catch‐and‐release mortality (FR plus FT) was low in comparison with the high rates of harvest (FH) for this Florida Bass fishery, it still made up 21% of total F. Our method combining passive tagging and telemetry tagging allowed for the estimation of all mortality sources, which can be important for high‐release recreational fisheries in which harvest is not the only source of mortality. Received July 14, 2015; accepted December 7, 2015 Published online April 25, 2016