{"title":"Increased fishing quality of Chicago's waterways following the Clean Water Act","authors":"A. Happel, P. J. Kennedy","doi":"10.1111/fme.12635","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>As conditions of Chicago's (Illinois, USA) waterways improved following implementation of the Clean Water Act, interest in recreational use of the waterways continued to grow, but the ability of this system to support quality recreational fishing opportunities remained unclear. We analyzed historical electrofishing data (1985–2020) to determine the status and trends in body-size metrics of fish populations throughout Chicago's waterways. Many species exhibited increases in abundance, size, and diversity of lengths. Despite these increases, the number of quality-sized or larger fish was sparse. While many species increased in abundance, Common Carp (<i>Cyprinus carpio</i>) and Gizzard Shad (<i>Dorosoma cepedianum</i>) declined in abundance during 2001–2020. Improvements to the availability and diversity of key habitats within Chicago's waterways would likely improve target fish demographics further and resultant recreational fishery opportunities.</p>","PeriodicalId":50444,"journal":{"name":"Fisheries Management and Ecology","volume":"30 5","pages":"464-482"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Fisheries Management and Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fme.12635","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FISHERIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
As conditions of Chicago's (Illinois, USA) waterways improved following implementation of the Clean Water Act, interest in recreational use of the waterways continued to grow, but the ability of this system to support quality recreational fishing opportunities remained unclear. We analyzed historical electrofishing data (1985–2020) to determine the status and trends in body-size metrics of fish populations throughout Chicago's waterways. Many species exhibited increases in abundance, size, and diversity of lengths. Despite these increases, the number of quality-sized or larger fish was sparse. While many species increased in abundance, Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) and Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) declined in abundance during 2001–2020. Improvements to the availability and diversity of key habitats within Chicago's waterways would likely improve target fish demographics further and resultant recreational fishery opportunities.
期刊介绍:
Fisheries Management and Ecology is a journal with an international perspective. It presents papers that cover all aspects of the management, ecology and conservation of inland, estuarine and coastal fisheries.
The Journal aims to:
foster an understanding of the maintenance, development and management of the conditions under which fish populations and communities thrive, and how they and their habitat can be conserved and enhanced;
promote a thorough understanding of the dual nature of fisheries as valuable resources exploited for food, recreational and commercial purposes and as pivotal indicators of aquatic habitat quality and conservation status;
help fisheries managers focus upon policy, management, operational, conservation and ecological issues;
assist fisheries ecologists become more aware of the needs of managers for information, techniques, tools and concepts;
integrate ecological studies with all aspects of management;
ensure that the conservation of fisheries and their environments is a recurring theme in fisheries and aquatic management.