7784

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7784
• Author: Snyder, D. E.
• Title: Impacts of Electrofishing on Fish.
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

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Impacts of Electrofishing on Fish

mal, and grand mal-with the familiar and well-
published descriptions and explanations of
electrofishing responses, particularly those he refers
to as the t1Biarritz paradigm" espoused by
Blancheteau et al. (1961), Blancheteau (1967),
Lamarque (1963, 1967a, 1990), and Vibert (1963,
1967b) following their intensive investigations at the
Biarritz Hydrobiological Station in France.

Review 7

Unfortunately, many investigations of
electrofishing injuries are ancillary to ongoing
electrofishing surveys, inadequately supported, or
preliminary studies that need follow-up. There is an
urgent need for a coordinated program of future
electrofishing research. Research should be
coordinated towards a specific set of goals to
optimize resources at all levels, assure comparability

Figure 3. Bent backs and abnormal growth in westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi, about
38 to 40 em TL) possibly caused by electrofishing-top and middle specimens; bottom specimen normal for
comparison. These were the only obvious deformed fish among 93 trout maintained as brood stock in Kiakho
Lake, British Columbia. All fish were originally captured as 1-3 year-old juveniles a few years earlier by
stream electrofishing and that event was considered the most likely cause for the deformities. However,
biologists sometimes attribute such deformities to other causes. (Photographs provided by and reproduced with
the permission of G. Oliver, fisheries biologist, Kootenay Region, British Columbia).