Comparison of electrofishing and NORDIC gillnets for sampling littoral fish in boreal lakes

• Published in: Lakes & Reservoirs: Science, Policy and Management for Sustainable Use
• Main Authors: Sutela, Tapio, Rask, Martti, Vehanen, Teppo, Westermark, Ari
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2008
• Subjects: Burbot; Lota lota; lota
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1770.2008.00372.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1440-1770.2008.00372.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1440-1770.2008.00372.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/j.1440-1770.2008.00372.x

Abstract Parallel sampling of fish, using electrofishing and NORDIC multimesh gillnets, was performed in the littoral areas of eight boreal lakes. Some fish species were caught only by electrofishing (e.g. bullhead, Cottus gobio (L.); burbot, Lota lota (L.)), while some were caught only with gillnets (e.g. pikeperch, Stizostedion lucioperca (L.); smelt, Osmerus eperlanus (L.)). The fish species that were caught with both methods (e.g. perch, Perca fluviatilis (L.) exhibited gear‐specific length distributions. A combination of NORDIC gillnetting (passive gear) and electrofishing (active gear) is suggested to reasonably well cover the entire species composition in the littoral zones (≈ 0–3 m depth) of boreal lakes. This gear combination is recommended for evaluating the ecological status of lakes within the European Water Framework Directive.