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398 <br />Fish disease regulations <br />Management Options <br />The risk of transferring serious fish disease agents <br />with live or dead fish has been recognized as a <br />seridus problem by many agencies. Until recently, <br />fish diseases have largely been regarded as a <br />hatchery-related problem. Recognition of the <br />importance of fish diseases in the wild environ- <br />ment is a recent phenomenon which resulted <br />from the occurrence of lazge epizootics such as <br />ulcerative dermal necrosis (UDN) in the UK, and <br />the huge mortalities of Chinook salmon in Lake <br />Michigan which were, in part, attributable to <br />bacterial kidney disease. These and other events <br />have shown that fish diseases can have serious <br />economic and environmental consequences. <br />Harvest control/allocation <br />Fishing regulations that restrict the harvest of <br />both hatchery and wild fish are developed to <br />protect fish stocks from depletion. Most regu- <br />lations use controls on fishing methods, seasons <br />and .bag limits as the major means of controlling <br />harvest. In many cases, these regulations never <br />achieve their intended purposes because total haz- <br />vest (annual) is never controlled. Recent changes <br />in regulations in North America, especially those <br />related to catch-and-release (Anderson 8t Nehring <br />1984J, suggest fishing quality and angler satisfac- <br />tion can be maintained along with maintenance <br />of appropriate fish stocks. <br />20.5 CONCLUSIONS <br />For a chapter dedicated to fish stocking, we are <br />likely to be accused of being very much anti- <br />stocking. But we have seen many native stocks <br />lost to stocking and have witnessed many wasted <br />efforts on ill-planned and poorly monitored <br />schemes for fish stocking. We wish managers to <br />view fish stocking as only one of many tools <br />available for fish management and not the only <br />and'best tool. <br />When managers aze required to use stocking to <br />sustain use of riverine fish populations, they must <br />ensure that they match the appropriate scheme <br />with the management plan for the river catch- <br />ment. Then, managers need to match the selected <br />fish species and strain with the habitat quality <br />and quantity available in the river. Here, we <br />emphasize that money and resources should al- <br />ways go as a priority to promote the restoration <br />and conservation of native fish species before <br />putting any reliance on the culture and introduc- <br />tions of non-native species. <br />ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS <br />M. Succi typed many drafts and made order and <br />legibility from scribbles and notes. We also ac- <br />knowledge the comments by an anonymous re- <br />viewer of an eazlier draft. Any bias we project in <br />this chapter results from our collective experi- <br />encesbeing centred in the Laurentian Great Lakes <br />of North America. <br />REFERENCES <br />Anderson RM, Nehring RB. [1984] Effects of a catch- <br />and-release regulation on a wild trout population <br />in Colorado and its acceptance by anglers. North <br />American /oumal of Fisheries Management 4: 257- <br />65. [20.4] <br />Balon EK. (1974] Domestication of the Carp Cyprinus <br />carpio L. Life Science Miscellaneous Publication, <br />Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. [20.2] <br />Bayley PB, Li li1N. (1992) Riverine fishes. In: Calow P, <br />Peccs GE (eds) The Rivers Handbook, Vol. 1, pp. <br />251-81. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. <br />[20.3J <br />Bayley PB, Petrere M Jr. (1989) Amazon fisheries: as- <br />sessment methods: current status and management <br />options. In: Dodge DP [ed] Proceedings of the Large <br />River Symposium, pp. 385-9$. Canadian Special <br />Publication Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 106, <br />Ottawa. [20.2J <br />Beamesderfer RC, Rieman BE. [1988[ Size selectivity <br />and bias in estimates of population statistics of small- <br />mouth bass, walleye and northern squawfish in a <br />Columbia River reservoir. North American /oumal of <br />Fisheries Management 8: 505-10. [20.2] <br />Berkes F. ]1989) Editorial: impacts of James Bay devel- <br />opment. Journal of Great Lakes Research 15: 375. <br />[20.3] <br />Billington N, Hebert PDN (eds]. ]1991] International <br />symposium on the ecological and genetic implica- <br />tions of fish introductions (FIN]. Canadian /oumal of <br />Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 48 (Suppl. 1]: 181. <br />[2o.2J <br />Blown DJ, Coon TG. [ 1991 J Grass carp larvae in the lower <br />Missouri River and its tributaries. North American <br />Journal of Fisheries Management 11: 62-6. ]20.3J <br />