Angler hunting habits and prey size

The UNBC NRES Institute continues to select great speakers with John Post. On January 25th, Dr. John Post gave a great presentation on landscape scale dynamics of fisheries, fishing and policy. Often times when attending presentations the speakers are quiet or lack charisma, however John maintained a clear voice and maintained a stance of enthusiasm throughout the entire presentation. I would rank his presentation as one of my favorites based on how well he was able to introduce me to fish ecology with having no background. Dr. Post created a master class powerpoint slide projection, by using figures rather than text to build the presentation road map. He often brought up the same info graphs and images for re-interation of the key points of his talk and to keep the listener from loosing track of the material.

I don’t have any overlapping areas of research, however I am always impressed by researchers who undertake adaptive management strategies, or who work within them. In his presentation, John did a great job at introducing how anglers  as predators have an effect on the size and quality of fish found in stocked lakes. The title of the presentation made me think his research would be on fish, but it was mostly on the behaviors of anglers who hunt the fish. John presented new information (to me) that stocked lakes have a optimum fish limit. Lakes that are frequently fished require more fish, however lakes that are less often fish require fewer. Over stocking a lake has a direct effect on how large the fish can grow, and understocking a lake has a direct effect on how much attention anglers will provide to the region.

Dr. Post gives a bit of reference to psychologists as he attempts to answer the gallery questions. I think that when reflecting on his studies it would be cool to compare his methods to the methods of other behavioral psychologists.