Stocking for pike population enhancement

Buchkapitel , Projekt Baggersee

There are three basic strategies in the fisheries managers' toolbox that can be used to protect or enhance fish populations (Arlinghaus et al. 2016). The first is enacting fisheries regulations, which manage fishing mortality (i.e., demand, chapter 12) and the other two are habitat management/restoration (chapter 10) and stocking, which attempt to enhance recruitment (i.e., supply). Stocking is the release of cultured or wild-captured fish into a different water body. It is widely used in inland and coastal fisheries for multiple reasons spanning from enhancement of recreational or commercial fisheries to conservation purposes (Cowx 1994, Arlinghaus et al. 2002, Lorenzen et al. 2012). This chapter focuses on stocking of northern pike Esox ucius Linnaeus, 1758 (herafter pike) as a way to enhance populations, i.e., increase pike abundance, biomass or catches. Stocking of pike for lake quality restoration purposes (e.g. to improve water clarity, Mehner et al. 2004, Brönmark and Hansson 2005) is reviewed in chapter 11 of this book. Here, we first provide an overview of pike stocking, e.g. reasons why pike are stocked, typology and some historical and quantitative aspects of pike stocking. We then review studies that have assessed the effectiveness of pike stocking for population enhancemnet and discuss important factors affecting the outcomes of stocking as well as the risks that may be associated with stocking pike. We end the chapter with recommendations for the future use of pike stocking as a fisheries management tool.

Guillerault, N., Hühn, D., Cucherousset, J., Arlinghaus, R., Skov, C. (2018). Stocking for pike population enhancement. In: Skov, C. & Nilsson, P. A. (eds.), Biology and Ecology of Pike. CRC Press, 215-247


Veröffentlicht : 2018
Erschienen in : In: Skov, C. & Nilsson, P. A. (eds.), Biology and Ecology of Pike. CRC Press, 215-247