Read Experimental Analysis of a Reduced Daily Bluegill Limit in Minnesota (Jacobson, 2005) and be prepared to discuss the following items in class.

  1. What is the described relationship between fishing effort and size-at-maturity and size of Bluegills?
  2. What hypothesis led to this study?
  3. What bag limit was used? How did the author arrive at this value?
  4. Describe the experimental setup? What are the response variables?
  5. What was the specific test of significance in this experiment?
  6. Interpret the results in Figure 1, Table 3, and Table 4.
  7. Why did the bag limits “work” in some lakes but not others?
  8. What else does the author want to know about anglers to set more reduced bag limits?
  9. What are (at least three) take home messages from this reading?