NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

January 28, 1998

CONTACT: Fred Cross (850) 265-3676

MERRITT’S MILL POND TO GET 5,400 SHELLCRACKER

Merritt’s Mill Pond in Jackson County will be stocked with 5,400 shellcracker this week in a long-term project to look at their age and growth in the 202-acre spring-fed lake.

"Natural reproduction of existing shellcracker will more than populate the Mill Pond but these fish are a known age and will provide a benchmark for determining age and growth rates," said Fred Cross, regional fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "There’s a lot that’s known about waters where the temperature changes with the seasons but this will give us a look at age and growth where the water temperature stays around 68 degrees Fahrenheit."

Cross said biologists look at growth by examining a fish’s otoliths which are the ear bones. Growth rings are laid down in the otoliths like rings in a tree and correspond to the growing seasons. Using the otolith-aging technique on fish from the Mill Pond has been difficult since the water temperature remains constant and the growth rings are hard to discern.

The juvenile shellcracker are 3 - 5 inches in length and were spawned from adult fish from the Mill Pond last spring at the FWC’s Blackwater Fisheries Research and Development Center at Holt. He said all of the fish are marked with a partially-clipped fin.

Merritt’s Mill Pond is one of seven Commission fish management areas scattered across northwest Florida. On January 1, 1998 a new regulation took effect on the Mill Pond which now limits anglers to five shellcracker per day and each must exceed 14 inches in length.