CAMPAIGNS

NORTH AMERICAN BLACK BASS COALITION

Anglers who target black bass account for a greater percentage of the angling-generated revenue across North America than any other species or species group, approximately $100 billion per year. Bass anglers are a highly organized group as well, with many local and regional bass clubs and tournament circuits from local to international in scale. Within fisheries management agencies, more effort is allocated for bass management activities than any other group. Even with all of this attention, however, controversies abound (e.g., culture vs. wild fish, impacts of tournaments, angling for spawning bass, closed seasons and sanctuaries, need for stocking, habitat loss, user group conflicts, animal rights pressures), and sometimes anglers, managers, scientists, and the fishing industry find themselves on opposite sides of a position. As a consequence, there is a tremendous need for education and information sharing among the various stakeholders.

AUGUST 2008 WORKSHOP:

SUMMARY

On August 20th, 2008, the North American Black Bass Coalition (NABBC) convened a day-long workshop to address issues and uncertainties challenging the bass angling community. The workshop, which was held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, brought together anglers, scientists, managers, and members of the fishing industry to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and formulate a strategy to address those challenges. To accomplish that objective, four facilitated panel discussions were conducted, each one focusing on one of the four topics listed below, identified through an electronic survey asking anglers, biologists and industry representatives involved in bass angling to rank what they perceived to be the greatest challenges.

PANEL SUMMARIES

Best Handling Practices for Angled Bass
Angling for Nesting Bass
Global Anti-Angling Movement
Habitat Issues Facing Bass Populations
Next Steps

Best Handling Practices for Angled Bass

The opening presentation (Cory Suski) summarized what we know about best handling practices for black bass from a physiological and behavioral perspective. The objective of the ensuing discussion was to list those aspects concerning best bass handling practices that are held as truths, as well as to identify those aspects of bass handling that are either known to be incorrect or are unknown and in need of future research. Overall, panel members and audience participants agreed that, based on angler catch rates, many bass populations across North America appear to be healthy and robust, suggesting that anglers are, for the most part, doing a reasonable job of releasing angled bass back to the wild in good condition. It was agreed, however, that scientists and managers could invest additional effort to educate anglers on recent research regarding best handling practices for bass. It was recommended, however, that tournament organizers should consider formats that eliminate weigh-ins and instead rely on modern technology to generate real-time, electronic catch results. Interestingly, it was also agreed that the widespread reduction in harvest rates by anglers might be compromising the abilities of biologists to manage bass populations in the wild.

Angling for Nesting Bass

The opening presentation (David Philipp) was to review the reproductive ecology of black bass and to summarize the existing experimental data on the impacts of angling for nesting bass. The objective of the ensuing discussion was to identify specific myths, realities and unknown elements associated with the impacts of angling bass during the brood-guarding period. Although research from northern latitudes has demonstrated a clear relationship between reproductive success and recruitment for both largemouth and smallmouth bass, similar long-term studies have not been conducted at southern latitudes. In addition, information suggesting how angling may impact recruitment at the population level is just now developing. In the end, panel members and audience participants agreed that we have a fairly poor understanding of the mechanism(s) that establish year-class strength for bass, much less how they vary across latitudes or how human activities affect it.

Global Anti-Angling Movement

During the session on the anti-angling movement, the opening presentation (Robert Arlinghaus) gave a thorough overview of different global viewpoints, objectives, and motivations concerning sentiments toward angling. In addition, the presentation highlighted not only the trend in urbanization of human populations observed in recent years, but also how this trend might impact global sentiment toward angling as a recreation. Discussion following this presentation highlighted some of the problems that could arise for both anglers and scientists if viewpoints regarding angling should change, and that discussion suggested that open dialog, coupled with increased angler numbers, will help prevent future conflicts within the bass angling community in regard to this increasingly worrisome issue.

Habitat Issues Facing Bass Populations

Results from the electronic survey prior to the workshop identified habitat issues as the single largest threat facing bass populations in North America. The opening presentation (all panelists) was a compendium of regional statements regarding what the major habitat issues facing black bass are. Results from the panel discussion highlighted a strong latitudinal gradient with respect to habitat-related problems. Bass populations from Canada and the northern States reported a minimum of habitat-related disturbances for bass, with problems confined to a few invasive species (round gobies and/or zebra mussels). Participants from southern States talked of problems associated with reservoir drawdowns (especially during the spawning period), as well as other water level issues, sediment loading, loss of woody debris from ageing reservoirs and a hyperabundance of invasive aquatic plants, all of which represent serious challenges for anglers and managers alike. Both northern and southern participants, however, recognized that impending climate change likely will result in additional, and largely unpredictable, alterations to habitat across the range of bass populations.

Next Steps

The facilitated discussion sessions resulted in three well-defined goals that are setting the agenda for future activities of the NABBC:

1. The NABBC should sponsor a task force to coordinate the production of a scientifically sound set of best handling practices and develop a strategy for disseminating that information to anglers and biologists alike through multiple pathways (media, internet, governmental agencies, extension offices, etc.).
2. The NABBC should sponsor a task force to generate a literature-based synthesis that summarizes what we really know about bass and their reproductive ecology and recruitment dynamics and to build a conceptual model that could explore when angling for nesting bass could have negative impacts, as well as when it may have no effect.
3. The NABBC should sponsor a task force that identifies ways in which the NABBC could help existing management activities protect and enhance bass habitat, as well as develop education and outreach programs that increase public awareness regarding activities with the potential to negatively impact bass habitat or create user conflicts between stakeholders.

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS:

Steve Pruiett (FCF)

Email the NABBC Campaign: NABBC at fishconserve.org