Why is the selective removal of juvenile fish often considered more damaging to a fishery than taking older individuals?
Answer
It prevents those young fish from ever reaching maturity or catchable size, collapsing recruitment
If cormorants consistently remove the young-of-the-year or yearlings, they prevent those fish from reaching maturity, thereby collapsing the recruitment necessary to sustain the fishery for the future.
Related Questions
What is the average daily fish consumption required by a single adult cormorant for basic sustenance?What key factors cause the daily fish consumption of a cormorant to fluctuate above the baseline figure?How does the required quantity of fish change if a cormorant targets smaller baitfish versus larger sport fish?When must a cormorant consume considerably more than the standard 500 grams daily minimum?What is the primary method cormorants use to hunt their food underwater?In which type of aquatic environment does the 500-gram daily intake create the most immediate and noticeable problem for fisheries management?Why is the selective removal of juvenile fish often considered more damaging to a fishery than taking older individuals?What type of prey fish are cormorants' hunting techniques best suited for?What strategies do pond owners sometimes employ to prevent successful cormorant predation in high-value areas?According to the text, what effect do cormorants have on fish populations in a natural setting?