Report Available Relating Fish Condition and Primary Production to Calcasieu Oysters

[Marque]

Math geek, I talked to a biologist doing a creel survey the other day that told me that LDWF has 7 gill nets placed through the estuary and that 5 of them are checked randomly each week. They fish retrieved are autopsied and documented. I had no idea they did that and didn't know if that buy was pulling my leg. Seems like a report generated from that kinda research would be a pretty useful to a lot of us. Was this guy messing with me? If not, is that something they publish or is it confidential?

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Marque

Math geek, I talked to a biologist doing a creel survey the other day that told me that LDWF has 7 gill nets placed through the estuary and that 5 of them are checked randomly each week. They fish retrieved are autopsied and documented. I had no idea they did that and didn't know if that buy was pulling my leg. Seems like a report generated from that kinda research would be a pretty useful to a lot of us. Was this guy messing with me? If not, is that something they publish or is it confidential?

They do and they look at sex and age of the fish caught which is why I have been asking for the usgs study (even asked pretty please a couple times). Sex and age are very very important when looking at fish condition. MGs studies so not take into account this very important metric

Angler creel surveys have their place but a gillnet does not have any bias. It catches everything and gets a true representative sample and not just fish that are susceptible to being caught by rod and reel. That is why you don't see a biologist sitting at calcasieu point everyday checking what people caught. They sample by more efficient means

[B-Stealth]

Originally Posted by Marque

Math geek, I talked to a biologist doing a creel survey the other day that told me that LDWF has 7 gill nets placed through the estuary and that 5 of them are checked randomly each week. They fish retrieved are autopsied and documented. I had no idea they did that and didn't know if that buy was pulling my leg. Seems like a report generated from that kinda research would be a pretty useful to a lot of us. Was this guy messing with me? If not, is that something they publish or is it confidential?

I ran into a guy I went took Wildlife Management classes with a couple weeks ago and they were running some gill nets. I'm not sure exactly what they do with the data; but sometimes it takes several years of data collection to have anything worth publishing.

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by Marque

Math geek, I talked to a biologist doing a creel survey the other day that told me that LDWF has 7 gill nets placed through the estuary and that 5 of them are checked randomly each week. They fish retrieved are autopsied and documented. I had no idea they did that and didn't know if that buy was pulling my leg. Seems like a report generated from that kinda research would be a pretty useful to a lot of us. Was this guy messing with me? If not, is that something they publish or is it confidential?

As was previously mentioned, it may take several years to publish anything, if they do. They may gather that data with no intention of publishing it, especially if it gives them nothing worth publishing.

LDWF gathers harvest data on turkeys and deer, but they do no release a report every year with that information. For example, Jimmy Stafford told me they try to release a WMA turkey harvest report every 5 years.

[Gottogo49]

Originally Posted by Marque

Math geek, I talked to a biologist doing a creel survey the other day that told me that LDWF has 7 gill nets placed through the estuary and that 5 of them are checked randomly each week. They fish retrieved are autopsied and documented. I had no idea they did that and didn't know if that buy was pulling my leg. Seems like a report generated from that kinda research would be a pretty useful to a lot of us. Was this guy messing with me? If not, is that something they publish or is it confidential?

Yes they really do run gill nets in the area. I have seen them running them several times. In general they make a set and run the boat around to scare the fish into the net. I have not seen them leave out the nets. They also drag seines to sample baitfish, shrimp and crabs. It is hard to get a hold of the data they collect. During their creel surveys, they sometimes remove the otoliths from trout and redfish. The survey guys/gals in the white trucks are not enforcement officers (black trucks), they are friendly, interesting folks if you have time to talk to them.