Observations on the growth and production of chub Leuciscus cephalus and dace Leuciscus leuciscus in a small lowland river in southeast England

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
SUMMARY. The River Eden (Kent, England) holds a mixed coarse fish population in which minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus), gudgeon (Gobio gobio), chub (Leuciscus cephalus) and dace (Leuciscus leuciscus) are numerically predominant. Chub and dace provide the major interest to anglers and their growth and production were studied. Observed growth rates of both species were marginally below recorded averages from other British habitats. Back‐calculations showed that year‐class strength and relative growth rates varied between years. Instantaneous mortality rate Z was 0.147 for chub aged 1–10, 0.438 for chub aged 10 and over, and 0.172 for dace. Exclusive of the 0‐group, fish numbers, biomass (wet wt) and production were found to be 0.1305 m‐2, 19.12 gm‐2 and 5.38 gm‐2 year‐1, respectively, for chub and 0.0968 m‐2, 4.33 gm‐2 and 1.69 gm‐2 year‐1 for dace. Smoothing of data produced theoretical production figures of 6.69 gm‐2 year‐1 for chub and 1.15 gm‐2 year‐1 for dace.