WLF commission meeting

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by redchaserron

MG,

Thanks for posting the information from your study. Is it possible, and has consideration been given to the idea that the difference in condition of the fish during open and closed periods may be due to a change in WHAT they are feeding on? If for example open weirs provided easy pickings on shrimp so the fish avail themselve of it, but when the weirs are closed they feed more on menhaden and finfish, it could be a matter of the fish being thinner when the weirs are open becasue they are taking advantage of easy prey that is lower in nutrients verses eating more nutrient dense food.

That could be. But note that our correlations are not between fish condition and whether the weirs were open the day a fish was caught, but rather our correlations are between fish condition and the average weir openings over the 90 day period immediately before each fish was caught.

But thanks for the idea, we need to give more consideration to whether weir closures forces the fish to feed on more nutritional forage.