Quote:
Originally Posted by dmtfish
Which is why I believe the oyster dredging has more of a detrimental effect on the health and quality of the lake than wier management.
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I believe the data. Fish condition correlates positively with oyster stock assessments for benthic feeding fish. Fish condition correlates negatively with weir openings.
We were certainly open to the idea of the weirs being the dominant effect on fish condition in the lake, which is why we did so much work acquiring and analyzing the weir data.
Other than the effects of oyster reefs on fish condition, most of what we are seeing relates fish condition negatively to factors that increase metabolic costs (salinity, temperature, etc.) rather than positively to factors that increase food supply. Slowing down currents and providing fish places to rest out of the current may be a more important factor for increasing fish condition than increasing the food supply. We may not need to feed them more so much as work them less.