Life history and ecological characteristics of humper and lean ecotypes of lake trout stocked in Lake Erie

Rogers, Mark W.; Markham, James L.; MacDougall, Tom; Murray, C. K.; Vandergoot, Christopher S.

doi:10.1007/s10750-019-03986-4

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Delayed spawning is likely to be of increased importance in Lake Erie, considering its southern location, shallow bathymetry, and corresponding warm temperatures as compared to other lakes within the geographic range of Lake Trout. However, the average age of females is lower in Lake Erie than in other systems (Rogers et al 2019), possibly due to increased Sea Lamprey predation on older, larger fish (Swink 1991; Schneider et al 1996; Stapanian and Madenjian 2007). Across the range of lengths studied, we found no differences in behavior during fall at the seasonal scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal spatial ecology of Lake Trout in Lake Erie

Funnell,

Brenden,

Kraus

et al. 2023

Trans Am Fish Soc

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ObjectiveLake Trout Salvelinus namaycush are native coldwater apex predators that play an important role in maintaining ecosystem functionality and diversity in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Following population collapses, rehabilitation efforts were widely initiated in the Great Lakes to reestablish self‐sustaining Lake Trout populations. Lake Erie may pose a challenge to these rehabilitation efforts due to limited availability of appropriate oxythermal habitat. Our goal was to investigate seasonal habitat use of adult Lake Trout in Lake Erie to inform management and rehabilitation efforts.MethodsWe used acoustic telemetry in Lake Erie, which was equiped with a lake‐wide acoustic receiver grid, to quantify Lake Trout seasonal region occupancy, dispersal distances, bottom depth occupancy, space use extent, and space use overlap.ResultWe found that 32% of fish tagged in the eastern basin and all fish from the western basin dispersed more than 100 km from their tagging location, which represents a greater proportion of the population moving long distances than what has been previously documented in the Great Lakes. During stratification, Lake Trout were detected almost exclusively in the offshore eastern basin in areas where water depth exceeded 25 m. During nonstratified seasons, fish used other regions of the lake, occupying areas of highly variable depths. During fall, most fish tagged in the eastern basin occupied habitat along the southern shore of the eastern basin. Fish tagged in the western basin returned to this region in the fall of subsequent years despite occupying the offshore eastern basin during stratification and having depth occupancy, home range size, and overlap similar to that of eastern basin‐tagged fish. Fish size was positively correlated with receiver depth during winter and spring, and with home range overlap during spring and summer.ConclusionThe results of this study can begin to inform management decisions regarding stocking locations, harvest regulations, and habitat restoration to facilitate the continued rehabilitation of this important native species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal spatial ecology of Lake Trout in Lake Erie

Funnell,

Brenden,

Kraus

et al. 2023

Trans Am Fish Soc

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“…Our estimates indicated slightly higher adult survival and therefore lower annual mortality rates than the average total annual mortality rate of 0.205 from 248 Lake Trout populations across North America (Hansen et al 2021). Survival of adult stocked Lake Trout was greater than in populations stocked in Lake Michigan (adult age 4+, annual survival rate of 0.594 from 2000 to 2008) and Lake Erie (adult age 5+, mean survival rate of 0.68 from 2004 to 2010); in both lakes, true age was determined using coded wire tags (Madenjian and Desorcie 2010;Rogers et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary Growth and Survival of Stocked and Wild Lake Trout in Lake Champlain Evaluated Using Maxillary Age Estimates

Hemmelgarn

Marcy‐Quay

Marsden

2022

N American J Fish Manag

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The population of Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush in Lake Champlain has been sustained by stocking since 1973, but natural recruitment of wild fish has been observed since 2012. By 2020, continued recruitment and maturation of wild year‐classes indicated that updated population parameters were needed to assess and adjust management practices. Age estimation from historical methods (fin clips and scales) was undependable due to crowding of annuli in older fish and the inability to verify uncertain age estimates using a 5‐year fin clip rotation for older fish. We used maxillary bones to obtain precise and accurate age estimates for adult wild and stocked fish. In combination with preadult ages derived from fin clips and length–frequency analysis, we estimated the contemporary survival and growth of juvenile (age 2–3), early‐adult (age 3–4), and adult (age 5+) Lake Trout in Lake Champlain. The precision and accuracy of our maxillary age estimates were greater than or comparable to the precision and accuracy of otolith and maxillary age estimates of Lake Trout populations in the Great Lakes. Estimates of Lake Trout growth suggested that stocked and wild fish grew at different rates, with stocked fish having an early size advantage but ultimately reaching a similar maximum size. There were no significant differences in length–weight relationships between stocked and wild fish. Estimates of adult survival were slightly greater than range‐wide averages and well above recent estimates for stocked populations in the Great Lakes. Juvenile and early‐adult survival estimates were similar to each other and both far lower than adult estimates. Stocked and wild fish had similar survival rates in all age‐classes. Ultimately, the use of maxillary bones allowed us to make better estimates of contemporary population parameters necessary for informing management decisions.

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“…We chose known‐origin validation samples from a range of lake trout hatchery strains and wild populations including many relevant to contemporary management decision‐making (Figure 1 ). These samples included the Klondike strain, a hatchery strain of the deepwater ecotype originating from Lake Superior that was previously stocked in Lake Erie (Rogers et al, 2019 ), and is currently stocked in Lake Ontario (NYSDEC Bureau of Fisheries, 2020 ); the Parry Sound strain, a hatchery isolate of a remnant native population from Lake Huron (Muir et al, 2013 ); the Clearwater hatchery strain, originating from a native population from Clearwater Lake, Manitoba, stocked throughout the Great Lakes during early restoration efforts (Grewe et al, 1993 ); and the Seneca hatchery strain, originally from the Finger Lakes of New York and now widely stocked throughout the Great Lakes (Muir et al, 2013 ). In addition, we included samples from natural origin populations in two other lakes in the Finger Lakes region, Keuka and Skaneateles, and from an isolated population in New York's Adirondack Mountains, First Bisby Lake.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%