Evaluation of stocked game fish in the Tanana Valley, 1995

Description

Evaluation of visual implant tags as marks to distinguish individual rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, estimation of reproduction by Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus in Harding Lake, and analysis of the cost effectiveness of the stocking program in the Tanana Valley are described. Visual implant tags were judged unacceptable as marks when within 72 days, 117 of 323 hatchery-held fish had shed their tags while tags in another 31 fish became unreadable. Sampling in Harding Lake was suspended halfway through the study when no juvenile Arctic char had been captured in gill nets, and incidentally caught lake trout S. namaycush and northern pike Esox lucius were dying at high rates. Of the major stocked fisheries with management plans in 1994, objectives for cost-per-angler day was met only at Quartz Lake. Cost-per-angler-day averaged $5.12 that year across the program. Objectives for harvest rates were not met anywhere in 1994, and stocked fisheries at small lakes (as a unit) was the only component of the program that drew enough fishing effort to meet its objective for 1994. Cost-per-angler-day was lower in 1994 than in 1993. Over both 1993 and 1994 together, Arctic grayling Thymallus arcticus proved the cheapest species to stock ($0.34 apiece) and Arctic char the most expensive ($14.94 apiece).

Subjects

Series Statement

• Fishery data series -- no. 96-44.

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