Management of Forage Fishes in Impoundments of the Southern United States

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Abstract
Forage‐fish management in southern ponds began in the early 1940s, and in reservoirs in the 1950s. Need for management arises from situations of both too many and too few prey for existing predators. The principal forage fishes stocked have been shads and silversides in reservoirs, sunfishes in ponds. Recent advances have been made in predator‐prey assessment methodologies, with respect to both the need for and the effects of management, but these techniques have not yet been applied widely. Management of forage fishes has included direct control of forage populations with toxicants, drawdown of water levels to increase forage availability, supplemental stocking and diversification of predators, and predator harvest regulations. Forage‐fish management has progressed from forage control to forage utilization and predator management, which makes efficient use of excess forage. Forage and predator species have been introduced with little evaluation of ecological relationships. Additional research must be done if management is to be carried out with predictable results; in the interim, management must proceed on the basis of existing principles.