Anadromous fish behavior important for fish passage
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Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic↗
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Studies on an Ichthyosporidium infection in fish: Transmission and host specificity
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Special Scientific Report - Fisheries↗
Setting and tracking suppression targets for sea lampreys in the Great Lakes
In response to invasive species, the course of action taken by management agencies often evolves over a range of options from a do-nothing approach to suppression to complete eradication. As a case study of suppression targets, we explore the history of approaches used by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission in response to the invasion of the Laurentian Great Lakes by sea lampreys ( Petromyzon marinus ). With the early realization that eradication was not possible using available techniques, focus shifted to suppression of sea lampreys to support fish community objectives for the lakes. As a surrogate for damage to the fishery, a suppression target was defined for the maximum acceptable marking rate, indicated by the average number of sea lamprey wounds observed on every 100 large lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) surveyed. Historic marking rates were used to delineate time periods of acceptable sea lamprey predation levels as an approximate measure of sea lamprey-induced mortality. A second target, independent of lake trout population status, was based on the average sea lamprey abundance estimated during the specified time periods. These intuitive targets have served as suppression benchmarks for the Sea Lamprey Control Program in the Great Lakes, allowing decision makers to gauge progress towards targets, refine control strategies and prioritize geographic areas for increased control effort. Here we document the development and subsequent changes to targets, summarize the methods used to implement these changes, and provide considerations for the future.
Great Lakes↗
A multi-species, multi-season evaluation of body condition effects on fish survival in a coolwater stream
Objective Body condition is often used as a surrogate of individual fitness in fisheries ecology and management, but empirical data demonstrating this linkage are few. Here, we investigated whether weight at length (i.e., body condition) explained individual variation in survival. Methods We conducted a mark–recapture survey of three native fishes subseasonally (every 2 months) over 28 months in a coolwater Piedmont stream in South Carolina, United States. We used a Cormack–Jolly–Seber model in the Bayesian state–space framework to characterize whether survival was explained by body condition. Results Body condition changed subseasonally, with its peak in spring (May) and trough in fall (November) in all three species (Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus , Creek Chub Semotilus atromaculatus , and Mottled Sculpin Cottus bairdii ). Survival decreased in warmer subseasons for all species. Additionally, individuals with higher body condition survived better than those with lower condition only in these warmer subseasons and only in the Mottled Sculpin, a species that is territorial and the most intolerant of warmer temperatures among the study species. Conclusions Our findings show that body condition is a predictor of survival only when populations undergo high mortalities in some but not all species, which are likely caused by a combination of factors, such as physiological stress, diminished food resources, and increased competition for resources.
South Carolina↗
Effectiveness of piscicides for controlling round gobies (Neogobius melanostomus)
Round gobies (Neogobius melanostomus) were introduced to the Great Lakes presumably as a result of ballast water releases from seagoing freighters returning from European water bodies. These unwelcome fish have become established in the Great Lakes region and are expanding their range to suitable portions of other interior drainage basins including the Mississippi River traversing the central United States and the Trent-Severn waterway spanning south-central Ontario. If the invasion continues, use of chemical toxicants as a control measure may be necessary. Toxicity tests of the currently registered piscicides antimycin, rotenone, 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM), and Bayluscide?? were conducted with three fish species native to the Great Lakes and round gobies collected from the Illinois Waterway. Tests indicated that round gobies are sensitive to all of the piscicides, however, the level of sensitivity is similar to that of the native fish species tested. Therefore, currently registered piscicides have limited potential to selectively remove round gobies. Bottom-release formulations of Bayluscide?? and antimycin were also evaluated as control agents for the normally bottom-dwelling round goby. Avoidance behavior tests demonstrated that the round goby did not react to the presence of either chemical. Therefore, the bottom-release formulations may have some application for the selective removal of round gobies, and may be one of the few tools presently available to fishery managers to help limit the range expansion of this invasive fish.
Journal of Great Lakes Research↗
Using fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing in fisheries applications: An example from the Ozark Highlands
Studies of thermal selection by organisms, including fishes, are common and provide data that are useful for conservation and management. Advances in temperature sensing technology have improved these studies; however, the benefits of new technology (e.g., increased accuracy and greater deployment flexibility) should be carefully considered and compared to disadvantages (e.g., higher costs and training requirements). Fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) has become more common in aquatic applications and may provide a novel and useful method of relating thermal patchiness to habitat selection by fishes or other aquatic organisms. We present a case study using FO-DTS to conduct a microhabitat-scale resource selection study using stream fishes of the Ozark Highland ecoregion in the south-central United States. We describe the setup and deployment of FO-DTS and how it was integrated into traditional microhabitat survey methods at three stream sites that were repeatedly surveyed over consecutive days. We successfully used FO-DTS to characterize thermal selection by Neosho Bass Micropterus velox at our sites and conclude that the technology would be applicable to similar, microhabitat-scale evaluations. We then compare costs, benefits, and disadvantages of FO-DTS to other sensing methods that could have been used to complete our study. We found that FO-DTS provided accurate measures and greater coverage compared to most alternatives but that equipment costs were far greater. We provide suggestions for additional fisheries applications where FO-DTS may be useful while acknowledging that in some instances, the upfront costs of the technology may outweigh the potential benefits.
Fisheries Research↗
Trout fishing in Michigan waters of Lake Superior, 1952
This article has been prepared to present the results of recently completed statistical studies on the fishery in the State of Michigan waters of the lake. The tabulations of production of lake trout and the estimates of levels of fishing pressure and abundance in the various statistical districts have been based on the monthly reports submitted by commercial operators to the Michigan Department of Conservation and turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for statistical analysis. To be sure, trends indicated by these statistics may not hold exactly for other areas of the lake. Conditions in Michigan are nonetheless of primary importance since during the last 25 years that state has accounted for nearly half of the entire Lake Superior trout production and for more than 70 percent of the take in U.S. waters.
The Fisherman↗
Perceived ecological threats and economic benefits of non-native black bass in the United States
Black bass Micropterus spp. are highly sought-after sport fish and, where introduced, are emblematic of the tradeoffs between ensuring productive fisheries and conserving native biodiversity. To disentangle these potentially conflicting interests, we administered a survey of fisheries biologists in the United States to assess perceptions regarding ecological and economic impacts of non-native black bass between anthropogenic and natural habitats. Our results indicate that non-native black bass are generally considered economically beneficial in both habitat types. Contrastingly, these species were perceived to have significantly more negative ecological impacts in natural than anthropogenic habitats. Our findings suggest that habitat may be an important factor to partition the conflicting ecological–economic dynamic of non-native black bass. Implications of this study suggest that challenges remain for managers attempting to balance the paradoxical nature of these species as both desired sport fishes and as potentially harmful invaders when found outside their native range.
Fisheries Magazine↗
The near extinction of lake trout in Lake Michigan
After the collapse of the commercial fishery for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Lake Michigan in the late 1940's, the further decline of the population was traced by records of numbers of small lake trout (mostly 11 to 16 inches in total length and 3 to 5 years old) caught in small-mesh nets of the chub (Coregonus \[= Leucichthys\] spp.) fishery. By 1951 the estimated abundance of these lake trout in lower Lake Michigan was only about 4 percent of their abundance prior to the invasion of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). This remnant of the population declined severely in subsequent years to a point near extinction by 1955. In April-July 1955 only 8 lake trout were caught in 5 1/2 million linear feet of gill net. Statistics of the lake trout and chub fisheries in State of Michigan waters of Lake Michigan for the years 1929–1954 give no indication that the destruction of small lake trout in the chub fishery had any effect on the later abundance of lake trout of commercial size, or that this destruction was a significant factor in the collapse of the lake trout fishery. Lake trout were brought near extinction by lethal attacks of the sea lamprey and by the near or perhaps complete failure of natural reproduction in 1949 and subsequently. Comparisons in 1949 and 1950 of numbers of legal-sized lake trout caught in large-mesh nets with numbers of small fish taken in chub nets showed that both large and small lake trout declined over the same period, and that by these years the decline may have been greater among small than among legal-sized fish.
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society↗
Spatial and temporal consumption dynamics of trout in catch-and-release areas in Arkansas tailwaters
Restrictive angling regulations in tailwater trout fisheries may be unsuccessful if food availability limits energy for fish to grow. We examined spatial and temporal variation in energy intake and growth in populations of Brown Trout Salmo trutta and Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss within three catch-and-release (C-R) areas in Arkansas tailwaters to evaluate food availability compared with consumption. Based on bioenergetic simulations, Rainbow Trout fed at submaintenance levels in both size-classes (≤400 mm TL, >400 mm TL) throughout most seasons. A particular bottleneck in food availability occurred in the winter for Rainbow Trout when the daily ration was substantially below the minimum required for maintenance, despite reduced metabolic costs associated with lower water temperatures. Rainbow Trout growth rates followed a similar pattern to consumption with negative growth rates during the winter periods. All three size-classes (<250 mm TL, 250–400 mm TL, >400 mm TL) of Brown Trout experienced high growth rates and limited temporal bottlenecks in food availability. We observed higher mean densities for Rainbow Trout (47–342 fish/ha) than for Brown Trout (3–84 fish/ha) in all C-R areas. Lower densities of Brown Trout coupled with an ontogenetic shift towards piscivory may have allowed for higher growth rates and sufficient consumption rates to meet energetic demands. Brown Trout at current densities were more effective in maintaining adequate growth rates and larger sizes in C-R areas than were Rainbow Trout. Bioenergetic simulations suggest that reducing stocking levels of Rainbow Trout in the tailwaters may be necessary in order to achieve increased catch rates of larger trout in the C-R areas.
Arkansas↗
Species‐ and habitat‐specific otolith chemistry patterns inform riverine fisheries management
Geology and hydrology are drivers of water chemistry and thus important considerations for fish otolith chemistry research. However, other factors such as species and habitat identity may have predictive ability, enabling selection of appropriate elemental signatures prior to costly, perhaps unnecessary water/age‐0 fish sampling. The goal of this study was to develop a predictive methodology for using species and habitat identity to design efficient otolith chemistry studies. Duplicate water samples and age‐0 fish were collected from 61 sites in 4 Missouri River reservoirs for walleye Sander vitreus and one impoundment (Lake Sharpe, South Dakota) for other fishes (bluegill Lepomis macrochirus , black crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus , gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum , largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides , smallmouth bass M. dolomieu , white bass Morone chrysops , white crappie P. annularis , and yellow perch Perca flavescens ). Water chemistry (barium:calcium [Ba:Ca], strontium:calcium [Sr:Ca]) was temporally stable, spatially variable, and highly correlated with otolith chemistry for all species except yellow perch. Classification accuracies based on bivariate Ba:Ca and Sr:Ca signatures were high (84% across species) yet varied between floodplain and main‐channel habitats in a species‐specific manner. Thus, to maximize the reliability of otolith chemistry, researchers can use species classifications presented herein to inform habitat selection (e.g., study reservoir‐oriented species such as white bass in main‐channel environments) and habitat‐based classifications to inform species selection (e.g., focus floodplain studies on littoral species such as largemouth bass). Overall, species and habitat identity are important considerations for efficient, effective otolith chemistry studies that inform and advance fisheries and aquatic resource management.
North Dakota, South Dakota↗
Suspended sediment and fisheries: An exploration of empirical relationships
Objective: Sediment has an important role in aquatic ecosystems, however, excess sediment can negatively impact fish and other aquatic life. Quantifying the response of aquatic life, particularly fish, to suspended sediment is important for natural resource managers tasked with developing sediment management guidelines to protect aquatic ecosystems. Our goal was to assess the ability of established, revised, and alternate severity of ill effect (SEV) dose-response models to predict the impact of suspended sediment on fish. Methods: We synthesized existing literature to develop an expansive dataset that relates suspended sediment concentration and exposure duration to biological effects on fishes and assessed the predictive ability of established and revised SEV dose-response models. We investigated potential sources of variation in biological responses to suspended sediment dose and explored two alternative approaches for assessing the effects of suspended sediment on fish: 90th quantile SEV dose-response regression models and logistic SEV dose-response models. Results: We found that both established and revised linear SEV dose-response models poorly quantify fish biological response to suspended sediment. Quantile SEV dose-response regressions also performed poorly. More promising are logistic dose-response models that identify sediment thresholds where major effects of sediment on fish can be expected to occur. We demonstrate that fish biological response to suspended sediment is modulated by sediment particle size, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen levels, suggesting additional environmental and biological variables to consider when evaluating the effects of suspended sediment on fish. Conclusion: We contribute revised and novel empirically derived tools for predicting the effects of suspended sediment on fish and demonstrate how environmental variables and life stage may modulate fish biological response. Our work illustrates challenges associated with predictive modeling and some potential sources of variation. While empirical models integrating biological stress response to suspended sediment may help natural resource managers capture potential impacts of this stressor, a cautious approach that considers co-acting stressors may be most effective for sediment management that is protective of fish.
North American Journal of Fisheries Management↗
The contribution of lakes to global inland fisheries harvest
Freshwater ecosystems provide numerous services for communities worldwide, including irrigation, hydropower, and municipal water; however, the services provided by inland fisheries – nourishment, employment, and recreational opportunities – are often comparatively undervalued. We provide an independent estimate of global lake harvest to improve biological and socioeconomic assessments of inland fisheries. On the basis of satellite-derived estimates of chlorophyll concentration from 80,012 globally distributed lakes, lake-specific fishing effort based on human population, and output from a Bayesian hierarchical model, we estimated that the global lake fishery harvest in the year 2011 was 8.4 million tons (mt). Our calculations excluded harvests from highly productive rivers, wetlands, and very small lakes; therefore, the true cumulative global fishery harvest from all freshwater sources likely exceeded 11 mt as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This putative underestimate by the FAO could diminish the perceived importance of inland fisheries and perpetuate decisions that adversely affect these fisheries and millions of people.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment↗
Using simulation to understand annual sea lamprey marking rates on lake trout
Sea lampreys attack fish, killing some and leaving marks on others. Great Lakes fishery managers rely on observed marking rates to assess the success of the sea lamprey control program and estimate sea lamprey-induced mortality of lake trout. Because marking rates are only observed on survivors of sea lamprey attacks, they may not provide a reliable index of actual attack or mortality rates. To investigate the effect of survivor bias, we developed a simulation model representing a single season (June–December) of sea lamprey attacks. Simulated attack rates varied with month and lake trout size; simulated pierce and lethality rates varied with month alone. Surveyed marking rates were represented by simulated survivors in October; true rates were calculated from all simulated lake trout (dead and alive) in December. Simulation results were subsetted to include only those within the range of marking rates actually observed in the Great Lakes. Type A (piercing) marking rates were a good index of the sea lamprey attack rate and the sea lamprey-induced mortality rate if annual lethality rates were relatively constant. Type B (non-piercing) marking rates were a good index of the sea lamprey attack rate and the sea lamprey-induced mortality rate if annual pierce rates were relatively constant. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the pierce and lethality rates, we recommend that sea lamprey abundance information be incorporated in existing lake trout statistical catch-at-age models via a functional response component relating sea lamprey feeding to lake trout abundance, if possible.
Journal of Great Lakes Research↗
Contemporary spatial extent and environmental drivers of larval coregonine distributions across Lake Ontario
Coregonine fishes are important to Laurentian Great Lakes food webs and fisheries and are central to basin-wide conservation initiatives. In Lake Ontario, binational management objectives include conserving and restoring spawning stocks of cisco ( Coregonus artedi ) and lake whitefish ( C. clupeaformis ), but the spatial extent of contemporary coregonine spawning habitat and the environmental factors regulating early life success are not well characterized. In Spring 2018, we conducted a binational ichthyoplankton assessment to describe the spatial extent of coregonine spawning habitat across Lake Ontario. We then quantified the relative importance of a suite of biophysical variables hypothesized to influence coregonine early life success using generalized additive mixed models and multimodel inference. Between April 10 and May 14, we conducted 1,092 ichthyoplankton tows and captured 2,350+ coregonine larvae across 17 sampling areas, predominantly within embayments. Although 95% of catches were in the eastern basin, coregonine larvae were also found in historical south shore spawning areas. Most coregonine larvae were cisco; <6% were lake whitefish. Observed catches of both species across sampling areas were strongly and similarly associated with ice cover duration, but the importance of site-specific characteristics varied, such as distance to shore and site depth for cisco and lake whitefish, respectively. These results suggest that regional-scale climatic drivers and local environmental habitat characteristics interact to regulate early life stage success. Furthermore, strong regional and cross-species variation in larval distributions emphasize the importance of lake-wide assessments for monitoring both the current eastern basin populations and potential expansions into western Lake Ontario habitats.
Lake Ontario↗
Spawning habitat suitability models for Lake Erie cisco (Coregonus artedi) during the historical period of pre- and post-population declines 1877–1957
Coregonine fishes play a key role in the food webs and fisheries of the Laurentian Great Lakes and are a major focus of basin-wide conservation efforts. In Lake Erie, management goals prioritize rebuilding spawning populations of cisco ( Coregonus artedi ). However, the historical distribution of cisco spawning habitat and the environmental conditions that influence early life-stage success remain poorly defined. We used a novel database of historical coregonine spawning observations as well as novel habitat variables to describe historical conditions to model and determine where and what habitat was historically most suitable for spawning cisco in Lake Erie. The environmental predictors that produced the best model included reefs, distance to rivers, historical substrate, coefficient of variation of ice duration, fetch, and circulation. The highest suitability occurred in areas of high reef probability, near river mouths, in rocky and sandy substrate, and in areas of low variability in historical ice, fetch, and circulation. Suitable spawning habitat is predicted mostly around reefs in the western basin as well as along the coast and near rivers lake-wide. Our model identifies important habitat features and allows managers to envision relevant scales and locations at which to focus restoration efforts.
Lake Erie↗
Declining diversity of wild-caught species puts dietary nutrient supplies at risk
Although biodiversity loss adversely influences a variety of ecosystem functions, how declining wild food diversity affects nutrient supplies for people is poorly understood. Here, we analyze the impact of declining biodiversity on nutrients supplied by fish using detailed information from the Peruvian Amazon, where inland fisheries provide a critical source of nutrition for many of the region’s 800,000 people. We found that the impacts of biodiversity loss on nutrient supplies depended on compensation, trophic dynamics, and functional diversity. When small sedentary species compensated for declines in large migratory species, fatty acid supplies increased, while zinc and iron supplies decreased. In contrast, the probability of failing to maintain supplies or nutrient supply risk increased when species were nutritionally unique. Our results show that trait-based regulations and public health polices need to consider biodiversity’s vital role in sustaining nutritional benefits for over 2 billion people dependent on wild foods across the globe.
Science Advances↗