While recreational fishing is expected to increase globally 5, threats to the biodiversity that comprise recreational fisheries include habitat degradation, overfishing, invasive species, and climate change 6, 7, 8, 9. Approximately 47 billion fishes were landed recreationally in each year between the late 1990s to early 2000s worldwide 3 and in the United States (USA) anglers spent $46.1 billion USD in 2016 4. Recreational fishing is globally among the most popular outdoor activities 1 and has high socio-economic importance 2. The new understanding of diversity, distribution, and systematics of Black Basses will serve as important basis for the management and conservation of this charismatic and economically important clade of fishes.
We provide a revised delimitation of species in the Largemouth Bass complex that necessitates a change in scientific nomenclature: Micropterus salmoides is retained for the Florida Bass and Micropterus nigricans is elevated from synonymy for the Largemouth Bass. Our phylogenomic analyses of ddRAD data result in the delimitation of 19 species of Micropterus, which includes 14 described species, the undescribed but well-known Altamaha, Bartram’s, and Choctaw basses, and two additional undescribed species currently classified as Smallmouth Bass ( M. Despite their popularity, previous studies to delimit species and lineages in Micropterus suffer from insufficient geographic coverage and uninformative molecular markers. The Black Basses ( Micropterus) are an iconic lineage of freshwater fishes that include some of the world’s most popular species for recreational fishing and world's most invasive species. Because the taxonomic rank of species is important in conservation and management strategies, success of these efforts depends on accurate species delimitation.
Informed management and conservation efforts are vital to sustainable recreational fishing and biodiversity conservation.
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