SOCIAL LEARNING AND LIFE SKILLS TRAINING FOR HATCHERY
REARED FISH
C. Brown, K. Laland-2001
Journal of Fish Biology, 59(3): 471-493
Abstract:
With the stress placed on our natural
resources, many fisheries increasingly rely on restocking from
hatchery-reared sources in an attempt to maintain commercially
viable populations. However, the mortality rates
of hatchery-reared fishes during the period directly
following release are very high. The successful development
of restocking programs is consequently dependent upon
production and release strategies that lead to
improved migratory, anti-predator and feeding
behaviour in hatchery fish. While relevant individual
experience prior to release might improve performance,
social learning potentially provides a process whereby
fish can acquire locally adaptive behaviour rapidly
and efficiently. It is now well over a decade since
Suboski & Templeton (1989) raised the possibility
of using social learning processes to improve the
post-release survival of hatchery-reared fishes. This period
has witnessed considerable progress in the understanding
of how social learning operates in fish populations.
We review new methods and recent findings that suggest
how social learning protocols could realistically be
applied on a large scale to enhance the viability of
hatchery fish prior to their release into the wild. We
also suggest a practical pre-release training protocol
that may be applied at the hatchery level.
(Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, U.K., Tel.: +44 (0) 1223 741804; fax: +44 (0) 1223 741802; email:kn11001@hermes.cam.ac.uk)