Quote:
Originally Posted by silver_snipe
So lake fish tend to be fatter than river fish is (kind of over simplified) what this boils down?
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The key experimental finding is that closing the weirs does hurt the redfish and specks, and it may even be helping them up to a point. The data shows that the fish have been thinner when the weirs are opened more.
The idea that needing to swim against the current to feed effectively at the weirs is a hypothesis to explain the unexpected experimental result. It is well known that (freshwater) trout in rivers and streams tend to be thinner than those in lakes, and the trout in streams compete with each other for the spots that allow them to rest out of the current but still ambush prey effectively. Trout in streams and rivers that fight the current most of the time quickly lose body condition, not from insufficient forage, but from the energy requirements of fighting the current.
I posted some of our hypotheses, not because we are highly confident of the explanations, but to stimulate discussion and get feedback on whether readers thought the hypotheses were right or wrong (and why) and also to see if readers here had any possible explanations we hand not thought of.