Originally Posted by FishinRod
If Gpugh severely fin and tail clips the GSF that are trapped and/or seined, is it possible to start feed-training his predators for a preferred diet of GSF?

Or are the fusiform YP still going to be the preferred diet when the top predators are large enough to eat both?

Per Lusk, fish don't "prefer" forage fish types over another, but are more successful at predation with some species over others. IE: fusiform YP vs BG. If I understand his position correctly, BG and YP are likely to both be targeted with the same frequency, however due to the fusiform shape of a YP it will be successfully preyed upon with higher frequency vs the taller BG, leading us [erroneously] to refer to the YP as the "preferred" forage species. This suggests we should instead refer to YP vs BG as the "more vulnerable" forage - I guess? I haven't spent a lot of intellectual effort grappling with this - merely wanted to relate the Lusk position.

Regardless - I've definitely experienced GSH and YP as either "preferred" or "more vulnerable" in all the fisheries I manage in the presence of apex predators, this phenomenon is ESPECIALLY prevalent in limited gape apex predator fisheries [SMB, WE, HSB]....so we're likely just mincing words. I mean, GSH and YP get hammered significantly more than other forage species of similar length. Considering the fact GSF are more fusiform than BG, while not as much as GSH or YP, I still suspect limited gape predators will be more successful managing GSF populations vs. BG.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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