Estimating Rate Of Exploitation From Tag Returns And Fishing Effort
A method was developed for estimating rate of exploitation from the rate of decline in catch per unit effort of tagged fish. The method was used to estimate exploitation of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) at a 75-ha Chambers County Public Fishing Lake, Alabama. Fishing effort directed towards largemouth bass was estimated from an access creel survey employing nonuniform probability sampling. The estimated 58 percent rate of exploitation agreed well with an independent estimate made using catch records and an estimate of the number of harvestable-sized ( > 249 mm total length)...
