Redfish and Specks Benefit from Limited Weir Closings

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by dmtfish

Yes, I do know how expansive that marsh is. I used to collect data for the coastal restoration projects and ran that marsh for 5 years. You are correct, the fish do move. I still think breaking the data into groups would give a more accurate representation for MG's hypothesis. Furthermore, in order to develop his theory, he would also have to take into account salinity, temperature, turbidity, etc...

We are also computing correlations with every available environmental metric. So far, the biggest factors are the WEIRS and the OYSTER REEFS.

The effects of salinity and temperature are predictable. Fish that prefer saltier water (specks) have a slight positive correlation between salinity and body condition. Fish that prefer fresher water (puppy drum) have a slight negative correlation between salinity and body condition, etc.

But in most cases, whether the weirs are open is a bigger effect, and for benthic feeders, the health of the oyster reefs is a bigger effect.

Grouping the fish by where they were caught is not only problematic because of the degree of fish movement over several weeks, but also because anglers are notoriously inaccurate when reporting where fish were caught.