Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Spatiotemporal Variation Of An Eastern Tropical Pacific Pelagic Community Assessed With Free-Drifting Bruvs, Tyler Stephen Plum

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Information about pelagic community diversity and ecology generally lags far behind that of coastal communities, and largely derives from fisheries data that do not reflect small and non-target species. We describe spatiotemporal vertebrate species diversity and variability over a 3,486 km² area of highly productive pelagic marine ecosystem in Pacific Panama using drifting baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS), a non-invasive fishery-independent sampling technique. We observed 26 taxa from 17 families, including 1 mammal, 3 reptile, 5 elasmobranch, and 17 teleost species. Community assemblages differed on and off the continental shelf and between wet (April – December) and dry …

2021 Assessment Of The Status Of The West Coast Demersal Scalefifish Resource, David Fairclough, E. A. Fisher, Sybrand Alex Hesp, Ainslie Denham, Rachel Marks

Fisheries research reports

No abstract provided.

Fisheries Science Update – October 2021: West Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries occasional publications

Key points: 2021 stock assessment outcomes • The West Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource (WCDSR) is halfway into a 20-year recovery plan following a period of overfishing in the 1990s and 2000s. • This latest assessment provides an important “health check” on the recovery status. • The recovery plan is based on maintaining recreational (including charter) and commercial sector’s total fishing mortality below catch limits and protecting key spawning aggregations to recover the WCDSR by 2030. • The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) tracks recovery progress by undertaking weight of evidence stock assessments of WCDSR indicator species dhufish …

2021 Assessment Of The Status Of The West Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource, David V. Fairclough, Sybrand Alex Hesp, Ainslie Denham, Emily A. Fisher, Rachel Marks, Karina L. Ryan, Elaine Lek, Rhys Allen, Brett M. Crisafulli

Fisheries research reports

A recovery program for the West Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource was introduced between late 2007 and early 2010, based on the maintenance of retained catches of demersal species (overall suite and each indicator species) by both the commercial and recreational sectors below 50% of the catches reported in 2005/06 (original catch recovery benchmarks).

Catch reductions were aimed at reducing exploitation levels (F, long-term fishing mortality of the key indicator species’ stocks) to below the threshold reference point (F = M, the natural mortality rate), which would then allow stocks to recover to above the …

Ecological Risk Assessment For The Temperate Demersal Elasmobranch Resource, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries research reports

No abstract provided.

Squid And Cuttlefish Resources Of Western Australia, Daniel Yeoh, Danielle J. Johnston Phd, David C. Harris

Fisheries research reports

No abstract provided.

Otoliths Of South-Western Australian Fish: A Photographic Catalogue, Chris Dowling, Kim Smith, Elain Lek, Joshua Brown

Fisheries research reports

Due to the species-specific nature of otoliths and given they are often the only part of the fish preserved when fish die, otolith catalogues can be used in numerous applications, such as diet studies in fish eating animals, including pinnipeds, fish and sea birds; archaeological purposes such as reconstructing indigenous people’s diets from otoliths found in middens or evolutionary history of fish species by comparing fossilized otoliths. Given the unique mixture of subtropical and temperate fish, including many endemic species that occur off the southwest corner of WA having a catalogue for this area is extremely important for people working …

Otoliths Of South-Western Australian Fish: A Photographic Catalogue, Chris Dowling, Kim Smith, Elain Lek, Joshua Brown

Fisheries research reports

No abstract provided.

Otoliths Of South-Western Australian Fish: A Photographic Catalogue, Chris Dowling, Kim Smith, Elaine Lek, Joshua Brown

Fisheries research reports

Due to the species-specific nature of otoliths and given they are often the only part of the fish preserved when fish die, otolith catalogues can be used in numerous applications, such as diet studies in fish eating animals, including pinnipeds, fish and sea birds; archaeological purposes such as reconstructing indigenous people’s diets from otoliths found in middens or evolutionary history of fish species by comparing fossilized otoliths. Given the unique mixture of subtropical and temperate fish, including many endemic species that occur off the southwest corner of WA having a catalogue for this area is extremely important for people working …

Assessing The Short-Term Effects Of Translocation On Freshwater Mussels: Is Habitat Or Water Quality More Important?, Joshua D. Arnold

Masters Theses

Freshwater mussels (Order: Unionida) are very important to the function of aquatic ecosystems and are typically indicators of good water quality. They provide a valuable link between the water column and the benthic substrate in which they live and are a valuable food resource for many species of animals. However, most species native to North America are currently threatened with extinction, to the point that more than 70% of native freshwater mussels are listed as either threatened or endangered at the state or federal level. The cause of this decline can be attributed to historical over exploitation, habitat alteration, and …

Effects Of Salinity On Eastern Oysters: Locating Lower-Salinity Tolerant Populations And Defining Resource Zones Suitable To Restoration, Fisheries, And Aquaculture., Lauren Swam

LSU Master's Theses

Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) provide valuable ecosystem services and support a productive commercial industry in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Declining abundance from water quality changes and other factors drives development of management and restoration strategies focused on a comprehensive, metapopulation approach. Identifying oyster resource zones based on water quality combined with selective breeding of oysters adapted to specific conditions provides strategies to support aquaculture development and ensure resilient oyster populations and high production. Using 2015-2019 satellite-derived continuous salinity and temperature data for coastal Louisiana, this work created maps defining oyster resource zones supportive of (1) broodstock sanctuary …

Marine Protected Species Identification Guide, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries occasional publications

No abstract provided.

Smallmouth Bass Feeding Dynamics And Growth In Headwater Streams Of The Interior Highlands, Brandon C. Plunkett

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Smallmouth Bass have been extensively studied, but knowledge of the effects of temperature and hydrologic regime on populations in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas remains lacking. In 2018, I monitored diet characteristics of Smallmouth Bass, located in streams prone to dryness and representing a range of water temperatures, and presence of potential competitors. Diet characteristics of Smallmouth Bass, Green Sunfish, and Creek Chub were studied in the Boston Mountains ecoregion of Arkansas during the summer of 2018. In 2019, I expanded the scope of the project to search for relationships between Smallmouth Bass growth and hydrologic regime. My objectives were …

Vignette 04: Olympia Oysters, Jodie Toft, Betsy Peabody

Institute Publications

Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) are our only native oyster species here in the Salish Sea. Olympia oysters once covered an estimated 13-26% of the intertidal area in Puget Sound, mostly near the heads of inlets. A combination of overharvest, pollution, and habitat loss reduced the current population to less than 4% of historic numbers, though sparse numbers of Olympia oysters can still be found throughout most of their historic distribution. Looking to the future, as our region’s marine waters experience effects of climate change and ocean acidification (OA), native species such as the Olympia oyster may prove to …

Vignette 05: Blocking Culverts Impact Salmonid Survival, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Institute Publications

During the first six years of implementing the U.S. v. Washington culvert case injunction, the State of Washington has corrected 150 fish-blocking culverts in the Puget Sound Region. At the current rate, if additional support is not gained, the corrections of the remaining 799 culverts would be completed in 32 years or the year 2052.

Vignette 23: Indigenous Management Systems Can Promote More Sustainable Salmon Fisheries In The Salish Sea, William I. Atlas, Natalie C. Ban, Jonathan W. Moore, Adrian M. Tuohy, Spencer Greening, Andrea J. Reid, Nicole Morven, Elroy White, William G. Housty, Jess A. Housty, Christina N. Service, Larry Greba, Sam Harrison, Katherine Ir Butts, Elissa Sweeney-Bergen, Donna Macintyre, Matthew R. Sloat, Katrina Connors

Institute Publications

Indigenous peoples of the Northern Pacific Rim have harvested salmon for more than 10,000 years, and Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) form the foundation of social-ecological systems encompassing communities from California to Kamchatka and Northern Japan. Through continuous placed-based interdependence with salmon, Indigenous societies formed deliberate and well-honed systems of salmon management. These systems promoted the sustained productivity of salmon fisheries. In Canada and the United States, Indigenous sovereignty and resource stewardship were forcibly disrupted by colonial government authority. Despite the destructive impacts of colonization, Indigenous culture and knowledge are resurgent in Canada and the United States. Indigenous fishing technologies and …

Vignette 19: Invasive European Green Crab, Jeff Adams, Emily Grason, P. Sean Mcdonald, Allen Pleus, Jude Apple, Roger Fuller, Lucas Hart, Alexandra Simpson

Institute Publications

European green crab pose documented threats to cultured and wild shellfish, eelgrass, and shoreline habitats and ecosystems. Because they can prey on juvenile crabs and shellfish, dense populations of EGC in the Salish Sea region could put fisheries and aquaculture resources in peril. After Fisheries and Oceans Canada researchers reported an established EGC population in Sooke Basin, BC in 2012, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) worked with Washington Sea Grant (WSG) to secure Puget Sound Marine and Nearshore Grant Program funding and establish a volunteer-based early detection and monitoring program. WSG launched Crab Team in 2015 with …

Vignette 14: Eelgrass Wasting Disease, Olivia Graham, Morgan Eisenlord, Drew Harvell

Institute Publications

Rising seawater temperatures can increase the risk of disease outbreaks in many taxa. Pathogens are potentially the ultimate keystone species in that their small biomass can have massive impacts that ripple through ecosystems. Disease outbreaks can be particularly damaging when they affect ecosystem engineers, such as seagrasses. Outbreaks of wasting disease in seagrasses are one of a myriad of stressors associated with declining temperate and tropical seagrass meadows around the globe. Levels of eelgrass wasting disease are high in the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound. These increasing levels of disease are a threat to sustainability of eelgrass meadows, our …

Vignette 08: Connection To Place: Indigenous Leadership In Səlilwət (Burrard Inlet), Tsleil-Waututh Nation’S Treaty Lands And Resources Department

Institute Publications

Since time out of mind, Tsleil-Waututh have used and occupied Burrard Inlet and surrounding watersheds. Generations of Tsleil-Waututh people were brought up with the teaching, “When the tide went out, the table was set.” About 90% of our diet was once derived from Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River, but today the Inlet is unable to support our needs. Cumulative effects of colonial settlement and development have eroded the ecological health, integrity, and diversity of the Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) has a goal to restore the health of the Inlet so that we, and future generations of Tsleil-Waututh People, can …

Life History, Diet And Habitat Of The Federally Endangered Laurel Dace (Chrosomus Saylori), Shawna M. Fix

Masters Theses

Laurel Dace (Chrosomus saylori) is a small, freshwater minnow that is endemic to headwater streams on Walden Ridge, Tennessee. The species was listed as federally endangered in 2011 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Plan indicates a need for life history, diet and habitat studies. A literature review, samples of archived specimens, and a surrogate species, the Tennessee Dace (Chrosomus tennesseensis), were used to describe the life history and diet of the Laurel Dace. A total of 370 Tennessee Dace were collected from Laurel Ford Branch, a stream 8.6 km from the Laurel Dace …

Climate-Driven Impacts On Himalayan Aquatic Biodiversity: A Case Study Involving Snowtrout (Cyprinidae: Schizothorax), Riri Wiyanti Retnaningtyas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring biodiversity, to include its relative dispersal and contraction, has become a conservation task of great importance, particularly given the catastrophic and ongoing loss of habitat due to climate change. However, the timing, direction, and magnitude of these rates vary across taxa and ecosystems. Predicting specific impacts of climate change can thus be difficult and this, in turn, hampers management action. Metrics are needed to not only quantify contemporary requirements of species, but also predict potential distributions that fluctuate in lockstep with climate.

Montane ecosystems in the Himalayas are highly impacted by climate change, yet remain largely understudied due to …

Habitat Partitioning And Associated Morphological Differences Among Three Species Of Catostomidae (Teleostei: Actinopterygii) In The South Fork Roanoke River, Virginia, Steven L. Powers, Dakota R. Spruill

Virginia Journal of Science

The upper Roanoke River has 11 species of Catostomidae including Thoburnia rhothoeca, Torrent Sucker; Moxostoma cervinum, Blacktip Jumprock; and Moxostoma ariommum, Bigeye Jumprock. Resource partitioning appears to be a key component of maintaining diverse fish assemblages with habitat and food partitioning cited as especially important in communities containing members of the same family. The diets of these species have been documented in previous work revealing only modest differences among them. Snorkeling observations and subsequent quantification of microhabitat were conducted to illuminate habitat partitioning among these morphologically and ecologically similar species. Thoburnia rhothoeca inhabited the shallowest, fastest water, over the …

Using Acoustic Telemetry To Analyze The Impacts Of Common Carp On Wild Rice Restoration, Franklin Zomer

All NMU Master's Theses

Wild rice (Zizania palustris) is an important cultural, spiritual, and dietary resource to Lake Superior Ojibwe. Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) are an introduced species that negatively impact aquatic vegetation through changes in water quality, uprooting of plants, and consumption of seed. Acoustic telemetry was used to document Common Carp movements in Waishkey Bay in the upper St. Marys River, MI where wild rice habitat is present. Exclosures were established to measure the influence of carp presence on wild rice seeding success. Common Carp were observed to spend much of their time in Waishkey Bay but also …

An Exceptionally Small New Polycotylid Plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) With Raptorial Eyes From The Western Interior Seaway Of North America, Robert O’Brien Clark

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Polycotylidae is a family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles that evolved during the Early Cretaceous and radiated into multiple genera during the Late Cretaceous, achieving a worldwide distribution. Derived polycotylids of the subclade Polycotylinae have a gracile and elongated rostrum, homodont dentition, an extended mandibular symphysis, and foreshortened temporal fenestrae. In this thesis, I describe a small and highly derived new polycotylid taxon based on three specimens from the Campanian of the Western Interior Seaway in North America. A high number of maxillary teeth, fused neural arches, propodials with well-defined facets, and heavily remodeled cortical bone indicate the specimens are adults, …

Effects Of Harvest Regulations And Post-Release Hooking Mortality On Walleye Populations In South Dakota, Cade Lyon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Harvest regulations are commonly implemented to manipulate fisheries stocks. By regulating the size and number of fish that are harvested by anglers, managers are able to meet the goals and needs of regions. However, these management actions come with the potential for negative consequences. Overexploitation due to less restrictive harvest regulations can cause collapses in fisheries populations. In addition, indirect consequences such as hooking mortality brought on by length-based regulations can also be detrimental to populations. In this study, I investigated the effects of various harvest regulations on Walleye populations in three western South Dakota irrigation reservoirs: Angostura, Belle Fourche, …

Assessing The Toxicity Of A Reconstituted Water Simulating Streams Influenced By Mountaintop Mining In Central Appalachia, Benjamin David Browning

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Freshwater ecosystems in Central Appalachia experience increased concentrations of manganese (Mn) and total dissolved solids from the runoff of surface mines and valley fills. Biological communities have been impacted by these surface mining operations and it has been suggested that the increase in total dissolved solids may contribute to these negative effects, but standard laboratory toxicity tests have not found increased concentrations of total dissolved solids to have such negative effects as seen in the field. The elevated total dissolved solids in mining influenced streams may only be toxic in conjunction with another toxicant that is presence in these systems …

Global Connectivity Of Southern Ocean Ecosystems, Eugene J. Murphy, Nadine M. Johnston, Eileen E. Hofmann, Richard A. Phillips, Jennifer A. Jackson, Andrew J. Constable, Sian F. Henley, Jessica Melbourne-Thomas, Rowan Trebilco, Rachel D. Cavanagh, Geraint A. Tarling, Ryan A. Saunders, David K.A. Barnes, Daniel P. Costa, Stuart P. Corney, Ceridwen I. Fraser, Juan Höfer, Kevin A. Hughes, Chester J. Sands, Sally E. Thorpe, Philip N. Trathan, José C. Xavier

CCPO Publications

Southern Ocean ecosystems are globally important. Processes in the Antarctic atmosphere, cryosphere, and the Southern Ocean directly influence global atmospheric and oceanic systems. Southern Ocean biogeochemistry has also been shown to have global importance. In contrast, ocean ecological processes are often seen as largely separate from the rest of the global system. In this paper, we consider the degree of ecological connectivity at different trophic levels, linking Southern Ocean ecosystems with the global ocean, and their importance not only for the regional ecosystem but also the wider Earth system. We also consider the human system connections, including the role of …

Age, Growth, And Mortality Of Atlantic Tripletail In The North-Central Gulf Of Mexico, Amanda E. Jefferson, Matthew B. Jargowsky, Meagan N. Schrandt, Pearce T. Cooper, Sean P. Powers, John Dindo, J. Marcus Drymon

University Faculty and Staff Publications

In the southeastern USA and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), Atlantic Tripletail Lobotes surinamensis are increasingly targeted by recreational anglers, indicating that stock status should be assessed. A critical need for such assessments is age-specific data; however, previous studies have drawn conflicting conclusions regarding the most appropriate structure for aging. Moreover, growth parameters and mortality rates for GOM Atlantic Tripletail are unknown. Therefore, the goals of this study were to (1) evaluate sagittal otoliths and first dorsal spines as aging structures; (2) model combined and sex-specific growth; and (3) estimate mortality rates for GOM Atlantic Tripletail. From 2012 to 2019, …

Effects Of Wastewater Effluent On Fish Fin Morphology Of Larval Fathead Minnows (Pimephales Promelas) And Swimming Performance Of Smallmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus Bubalus), Seth Michael Bogue

Masters Theses

The Sangamon River flows across central Illinois and is mostly free flowing except in the city of Decatur where it is impounded to form Lake Decatur. The Sanitary District of Decatur (SDD) is located approximately three miles downstream of the Lake Decatur dam. For a significant portion of the year, the stretch of the Sangamon River downstream of SDD is dominated by effluent due to limited discharge from the Lake Decatur dam. This has resulted in heavy nutrient loading, most notably phosphorus, and elevated levels of nickel and other compounds in the downstream section of the river. Smallmouth buffalo ( …

Prevalence Of Cymothoidae (Isopoda) Infestation In Bigeye Scad (Selar Crumenophtalmus) From Batangas, Philippines, Tanya Faye S. Muji, Joaquin R. Sorreta, Janice A. Ragaza

Biology Faculty Publications

Cymothoid isopod research is relatively scarce in the Philippines, despite the local economic significance of bigeye scad as an inexpensive source of protein and other nutrients. Isopod parasitism has also been shown to have detrimental effects on their fish hosts. The current study aimed to define the host-parasite relationship between cymothoid isopod and bigeye scad by determining cymothoid isopod prevalence, intensity, and host-parasite length correlations in bigeye scad (Selar crumenophthalmus) hosts sourced from Batangas, Philippines. Fish samples were sampled from the Tagaytay City Market in Cavite, which sources fish directly from Batangas. Fish samples were immediately measured and …