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Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus Dolomieu) Population Characteristics And An Evaluation Of Management Responses In Two West Virginia Watersheds, Jacob D. Harrell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) population characteristics were examined within the Tygart and Cheat River watersheds of north-central West Virginia. Growth, mortality and recruitment were examined for each individual population prior to modeling potential effects of various management schemes. Smallmouth Bass were sampled for total length and weight, aged using sagittal otoliths and sexed through observations of gonadal or ovarian development. Growth for each population was examined using von Bertalanffy growth models and assessed for variation among populations. Population demographic characteristics differed between and among populations, most noticeably between riverine and lacustrine habitat, whereby growth, mortality and recruitment were higher …