I applaud your research here . . . but it is only correlational in inference . . . no cause and effect.
And I am not criticizing here - because you did something that the purpose of correlational research suggests. And that is to point out factors which may associated with the health of the species you studied.
But....oyster reefs in themselves provide habitat for trout forage species. The habitat issue...the marsh loss on the southeastern section of the lake that is noted may also contribute to the lack of forage species entering the lake as well as the numbers of the species themselves - such as speckled trout and redfish. This would be certainly a competing hypothesis. But . . .I certainly still will not in any way Boycott the STAR. Maybe it's my age, but I remember the effects of nets for both speckled trout and the lack of redfish in the not-too-distant past. Back then , recreational fishing for speckled trout in terms of numbers was even much poorer than the recent two years. We would not be having this discussion if the politics of anti-netting had not resulted in the favor of recreational anglers. But again, I like what you have found . . . but there may be more competing hypotheses for this cause than you suggest. E-mail me and I'll be happy to discuss this. A look at the most recent marsh loss statistics in area demonstrate alarm especially for speckled trout unless you believe in the tide-runner theory.
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