MathGeek |
06-04-2012 10:10 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Salty
(Post 442354)
I got a buddy that fishes down in Florida. Maybe, while you're at it, you can get their redfish limit doubled....to two. I'm sure Texas inland guys would appreciate a little boost, as well.
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Comparisons with Florida and Texas miss the mark, because they assume that fishing pressure is the biggest factor in productivity of a fishery. It isn't.
The two overwhelmingly most important factors for productivity in a fishery are habitat quality and food. Louisiana kicks butt in the production of shrimp, crabs, and oysters because it's inshore waters and marshes are simply much higher quality. The Mississippi river supplies higher levels of fertility and the delta habitat is simply superior to FL and TX. Many decades ago, Galveston Bay had nearly the potential of most LA estuaries, but it was destroyed by overharvesting of oysters, run-off and pollution from Houston area development, and by other ecological abuses.
You don't produce quality seatrout by being overprotective of younger seatrout, especially when there are already too many hungry mouths to feed. The habitat (oyster beds) and food sources (shrimp and gulf menhaden primarily) are in need of protection, and the way to most effectively protect them is to reduce the numbers of their biggest predator, the spotted seatrout.
FL redfish also have to compete with lots of other species in the inshore and nearshore waters that are much less common in inshore LA waters. The expected weight of a FL redfish of a given length is much thinner than a LA redfish, because there is a lot more competition for the same food, and the competitors tend to be more effective predators than the redfish in the clearer FL waters.
When the deer population exceeds about 15 deer per square mile, you no longer get many monster 10 pointers, you get a lot of runt bucks and does.
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