Assembling the right pieces: Developing an interdisciplinary team to study disease, decline, and recovery of a world-class Smallmouth Bass fishery

Abstract

Managing and understanding fisheries dynamics are becoming more complex as new and seemingly more complicated environmental factors are identified. Often management requires resources beyond that of any one entity and calls for collaboration among partners with differing priorities and backgrounds to account for the complexity of factors influencing fisheries. We present a collaborative case study from the Susquehanna River basin, Pennsylvania, where Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu have faced population declines, mortality events, and notable signs of disease in recent years. Collaboration was required to study many facets of the fishery and the environment simultaneously to better understand risk factors and underlying relationships influencing Smallmouth Bass health. The outcomes from this interdisciplinary collaboration allowed for identification of contributing risk factors, led to the development of products and analytical techniques that were mutually beneficial to all partners involved, and provided knowledge that was integrated into fish health and fisheries management.