Minutes of the Reservoir Committee
SDAFS Midyear Meeting
Little Rock, Arkansas
February 21, 2002
Meeting Convened February 21, 2002
Chairman Mark Oliver called the meeting to order at
about 8:00 a.m. with the following present:
Members present:
Mark Oliver declared that a quorum was present and
approved the minutes of the summer 2001 meeting held in Atlanta. Mike
Colvin was appointed secretary for the current meeting.
Reservoir Committee fund balances totaled $40,700 in
January, 2002. This is down from a balance of about $49,700 from the
previous year. Declines are a combination of committee expenditures and
current market conditions. Mark announced that there still are sufficient
funds to help members attend meetings.
Old Business:
Online
Aquatic Vegetation Manual (Fred Janssen): Fred and Mike Smart are
working on the interactive portion of the online manual where users can
input lake conditions and get a list of plants that have been known to
work under their specified conditions. Input variables include substrate,
water clarity, winter and summer fluctuations. The general layout of the
program is complete and everyone agreed that it looked good, but there may
still be problems adapting it to the database system used on the web page.
Fred and Mike are still working on ways to handle outlier variable values
and how to keep up with new information that is still coming in. Also
still to be completed is an introductory page and possibly a detailed
report that can be accessed by those who want it. Line drawings or
photographs of about half of the plants on the species list also still
need to be completed.
There was considerable discussion of how we were going
to advertise both the abiotic and biotic habitat manuals to maximize their
use. Suggestions included: Fisheries, letters to state fisheries chiefs,
state extension programs, and the Aquatic Plant Society. Mark Oliver
appointed a subcommittee to develop an advertising approach: Fred Heitman,
Chris Horton, Gene Gilliland, and Mark Oliver.
White bass symposium
(Mike Colvin): The white bass symposium (11 papers plus introduction)
will be in the May 2002 issue of North American Journal of Fisheries
Management (NAJFM). Previously, the Reservoir Committee committed $1,000
to help offset costs of reprinting a module. Chris Guy, symposium
coordinator, wants to send the module to AFS Fisheries Management Section
members who do not receive NAJFM (about 360 members). In addition, the
Reservoir Committee would like some extra copies that can be distributed
among biologists in Southern Division states. Although a target number was
not set, the consensus was that at least 140 (bringing the total to 500)
could be distributed through the committee. After more discussion, a
motion authorizing the Reservoir Committee chair to approve up to $2,000
for publication of the module was approved. Our committee's contribution
will be combined with one from the AFS Fisheries Management Section. Any
unused funds will be distributed back to the committees. Chris will let us
know how much he needs when he hears back from the AFS publications
office.
Bob Jenkins
Scholarships (Gene Gilliland): Steve Sammons was approved to
receive the scholarship for his his second year. Eleven applications for
first-year scholarships were received. These will be reviewed and the
winner will be announced at the Division business meeting on February 23.
Reservoir
Committee Homepage (Fred Janssen): Fred encouraged everyone to
submit updated project summaries for their states and organizations.
New Business
Reservoir
Committee Poster (Mark Oliver): Steve Miranda composed the
Reservoir Committee poster for the Division's 50th anniversary
celebration. It will be on display during the social Saturday night. The
poster covers all of the committee's major projects and lists all present
and former members. Looks great!
FAST Workshop (Mark
Oliver): The committee is cosponsoring the FAST workshop presented by
Mike Maceina and Jeff Slipke this Friday. The committee is covering the
cost of electrical outlets needed for participants' laptop computers.
Aquatic
Plant Symposium AFS 2002 (Mark Webb): The Reservoir Committee is
sponsoring a symposium entitled "Vegetation as Fish Habitat" at
the AFS annual meeting in Baltimore, MD this year. So far we have
commitments for 21 presentations which include freshwater and estuarine.
We hope some of the papers will be published as a module.
Catch and Release
Issues (Mike Alexander): The committee continued a discussion that
was initiated in Atlanta by T. O. Smith of Texas concerning anglers'
attitudes and concepts of why they release fish (particularly largemouth
bass). Biologists have been concerned that excessive catch and release of
legal bass, particularly below slot limits, has hindered our ability to
manage bass populations. T. O. has developed surveys in Texas designed to
determine what anglers are thinking when they release legal bass. Once
determined, biologists might be able to redirect anglers' attitudes
towards harvesting fish and improve our ability to use various regulations
to improve fisheries.
Mike Alexander wondered if we need to document the
problem better before embarking on angler surveys. Mike Allen further
discussed how slot limits have not worked in many waters because anglers
will not harvest bass smaller than the minimum slot size, and it's time we
try to figure out why.
After further discussion, the committee decided by
general consensus that even though we might not know the extent of the
problem, the issue of anglers' attitudes of why they release legal fish is
important to most state agencies. Hearing no opposition, Mark Oliver
proclaimed that this issue should be our next major project. It was
decided that we would address the issue with a two-pronged approach.
The first approach will be to sponsor a catch and
release symposium at the next midyear meeting. Mark Oliver appointed Mike
Allen and Mike Alexander to organize the symposium.
The second approach will be to draft a basic proposal
for a multi-state survey of anglers which will determine their reasons for
releasing bass. T. O. Smith has agreed to design the survey and analyze
the data. Each state will be asked to provide names and addresses of 1200
anglers for the survey. States will be asked to stuff and provide postage
for their portion. Mark Oliver appointed a subcommittee of T. O. Smith,
Fred Janssen, Greg Summers, and Vic DiCenzo to work on this proposal. Vic
agreed to present it at the Fisheries Administrators Section Meeting. If
approved, outside grant funding for the project might be sought.
Special Note: During this
discussion, Mike Alexander admitted that he was highly opinionated!
Tournament Data
Collection and LMB Virus (Gene Gilliland): Gene Gilliland
presented statewide bass tournament data from Oklahoma, Alabama,
Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas showing dramatic
increases in the number of hours required to catch bass > 5 pounds in
the past few years, all of which occurred after detection of largemouth
bass virus. Jeff Slipke noted that bass growth rates have slowed in some
waters since detection of the virus. Gene asked for additional tournament
information. Although cause and effect has not been established, there is
cause for concern. This issue will be discussed further during the LMB
virus workshop on Friday.
Election
of New Reservoir Committee Chair: Fred Janssen was elected as our
new chair by acclamation and promised to fearlessly lead us for the next
two years. Thanks, Fred.
Summer Meeting
Location (Kevin Yokum): Kevin Yokum agreed to host the summer
meeting at Stonewall Jackson Lake, West Virginia. He will look into
reserving two dates in July.
After the round table discussion, the
committee thanked Mark Oliver for his service with a round of applause,
and the meeting was adjourned. |
