Summer Habitat Use, Home Range, and Effect of Catch and Release Mortality on the Trophy Potential of Muskellunge, (Esox masquinongy, Mitchill, 1824), in a Southern Reservoir Population
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Research on Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy, Mitchill, 1824) catch-and-release mortality has been historically focused on the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Ontario. In the southern portion of their range, which we consider to be the portion of the species distribution south of the Mason-Dixon Line (~40°N), Muskellunge, may experience significantly warmer temperatures than those in previous studies and anglers have expressed concern about summer catch-and-release mortality. As part of a broader study to quantify catch-and-release summer mortality in the southern range of Muskellunge, we utilized radio telemetry and active tracking to verify individual movement and survival of Muskellunge in Stonewall Jackson Lake, WV. The lake has a 52-inch minimum size limit for Muskellunge, making it effectively catch-and-release except for trophy-sized individuals. We tagged 45 Muskellunge in the spring of 2020 and 47 Muskellunge in the spring of 2021 with radio telemetry transmitters, PIT tags, and an external dart tag for unique identification by anglers. Muskellunge were tracked weekly from June through September and monthly in October, November, March, April, and May. GPS location and water quality parameters were taken at each unique location. We collaborated closely with anglers and Muskies, Inc. to promote cooperation in the study and to provide rewards to anglers catching and reporting tagged fish. Our estimate of angling mortality was based on survival of individuals reported caught by anglers versus survival of fish not reported caught-and-released. In 2020, 10 fish were caught by anglers when the temperatures exceeded 25o C, and mortality was 10 percent. In 2021, 19 fish were caught by anglers when temperatures exceeded 25o C, mortality was 10.5 percent. Twenty-six fish were caught during Spring, Fall, and Winter, and survival was 100%. Individual growth model simulations were used to estimate the effect that catch and release mortality has on trophy potential under different levels of mortality and summer exploitation. Small differences, < 2 % difference in the proportion of the population reaching memorably size, were seen at what we estimate are current values of summer catch and release mortality (Cm = 0.1) and summer exploitation (Se = 0.15). Effects are more pronounced at higher levels of catch and release mortality and exploitation (Se = 0.19; Cm = 0.3). A closed summer season doubles the number of trophy individuals from 20 to 40 individuals (2 and 4% of the 1000 age-1 individuals). Muskellunge oxy-thermal habitat use, home range, and movement was identified from radio telemetry locations.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".