My (non-expert) theory, is that there are still lots of ponds that have viable, reproducing golden shiner populations. Which I believe are dependent upon conditions in the pond.
If you have suitable living and spawning habitat for the GSH, and an appropriate food source, then the shiners can become an excellent forage source fish in your pond.
I believe it is due to the "delayed detonation" of the infertility infection. Even if the mature females become infertile, there is a period where the fingerling GSH grow to reach sexual maturity and yield a spawn or two before they subsequently become infertile.
I kind of view GSH as a "low risk" experiment like tilapia are anywhere north of the deep south. If the experiment does NOT provide a benefit to your pond, then it will self-correct as the population dies out.
(That applies where the experiment "failed" due to not establishing a reproducing population of GSH. There are ponds with small-gape top predators, that can fail where the GSH are barely reproducing, but no predators are eating the largest infertile shiners and the pond now contains a large biomass of non-beneficial fish.)
