Cormorant catch concerns for fishers: estimating the size-selectivity of a piscivorous bird.
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Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 24244277.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0077518 and PMC identifier 3820684.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Conflict arises in fisheries worldwide when piscivorous birds target fish species of commercial value. This paper presents a method for estimating size selectivity functions for piscivores and uses it to compare predation selectivities of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis L. 1758) with that of gill-net fishing on a European perch (Perca fluviatilis L. 1758) population in the Curonian Lagoon, Lithuania. Fishers often regard cormorants as an unwanted "satellite species", but the degree of direct competition and overlap in size-specific selectivity between fishers and cormorants is unknown. This study showed negligible overlap in selectivity between Great Cormorants and legal-sized commercial nets. The selectivity estimation method has general application potential for use in conjunction with population dynamics models to assess fish population responses to size-selective fishing from a wide range of piscivorous predators.
Medical subject headings
- Birds
- Feeding Behavior
- Fisheries
- Models, Biological
- Perches