Welcome to the interactive web schedule for the 2017 SEAFWA Conference! For tips on how to navigate this site, visit the "Helpful Info" section. To return to the SEAFWA website, go to: www.seafwa.org/conference/overview
Note: Session titles beginning with an asterisk (*) have student presenters.
AUTHORS: Richard A. Snow, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation; Daniel E. Shoup, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Fisheries Ecology, Oklahoma State University; Michael J. Porta, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
ABSTRACT: Geographical range of a species can be limited by environmental condition such as temperature. This is important to understand when trying to create a population of northern fish on the southern fringes of their range. Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) have been stocking tiger muskellunge (Esox masquinongy x E. lucius) in Lake Carl Etling in northwestern Oklahoma since 2014 with little success. Lake Carl Eting experiences a broad range of temperatures that could affect recruitment of tiger muskellunge, especially during times of the year when prey are not abundant. Temperature tolerances of juvenile tiger muskellunge were determined in laboratory trials using starved and fed fish (N=9 each) acclimated to temperatures of 20, 24, and 280C. We used the lethal thermal maxima (LTM) procedure to assess the upper thermal tolerances of starved and fed tiger muskellunge subjected to a 1oC per hour temperature increase. Response variables consisted of three sub-lethal responses (initial loss of equilibrium, final loss of equilibrium, loss of motion) and the temperature at which death occurred. The temperature at which final loss of equilibrium, loss of motion and death occurred generally increased with acclimation temperature for fed fish but decreased with acclimation temperature for starved fish. At 20oC acclimation, no difference was observed between fed and starved fish, but the feeding treatments were always significantly different at the 28oC acclimation temperature. Starvation lowered the thermal tolerance of juvenile tiger muskellunge, which could negatively affect southern populations if stocked fish are not able to forage successfully.
Wednesday November 1, 2017 11:00am - 11:20am EDT
Jones