Movement of walleye in an impounded reach of the Au Sable River, Michigan, USA

Abstract

SynopsisWe estimated long-range spawning and foraging movements of walleye and observed their use of river and reservoir habitats between two large hydroelectric dams on the Au Sable River, Michigan. We used radiotelemetry to monitor seasonal and daily movements of 11 large walleye. Walleye ranged throughout the entire reach between the two dams. Eight of the 11 fish used both river and reservoir locations. Walleye migrated upriver in April or May and presumably spawned near the dam tailwaters. After spawning, walleye remained in the river for up to 6 months, usually establishing local ranges. During this time, they occupied low-velocity refuges within the first 25 km of the upstream dam. They seldom occupied the downstream area, which has higher variation around the mean temperature. Food availability and water temperature may have affected the length of time that walleye remained in the river after spawning. All walleye overwintered in the reservoir. We designed this study to evaluate if walleye have a potential negative impact on brown trout, Salmo trutta. In summer, walleye were often present near sites where fingerling trout were stocked. We found the highest potential for interaction between the two species occurs within the first 25 km of the upstream dam during summer. The movement patterns of and habitats used by large walleye validate concerns that walleye could compete with adult brown trout for food and resting sites and prey on juvenile brown trout.

A Reduced Parameter Stream Temperature Model (RPSTM) for basin-wide simulations

“…Thus groundwater fed tributaries are important in sustaining the cold-and cool-water fish species (Clapp et al, 1990;Wiley et al, 1997;Brazner et al, 2005;Creque et al, 2005), which are common in much of the river system. Nonetheless, there is concern that a number of important fishes may become susceptible to thermal stresses (O'Neal, 1997;DePhilip et al, 2005;Larson et al, 2013) resulting from land use changes (e.g., urban sprawl) (Pijanowski et al, 2006(Pijanowski et al, , 2007, climate change , and hydropower production (Horne et al, 2004).…”

Otolith chemistry indicates walleye movement and entrainment in a large serial reservoir system

“…Severe effects of entrainment include direct mortality and injury resulting from shear stress, barotrauma and contact with turbines and water release structures (Čada, ). Regardless of the effects of entrainment, these impacts are often magnified as discharge increases and more fish are entrained (DePhilip et al., ; Fincel et al., ; Perry et al., ; Spoelstra et al., ). From a fisheries management perspective, the efficacy of otolith chemistry for evaluating walleye environmental history indicates that managers can use this technique as a predictive tool to forecast movement and entrainment in baseline and flood conditions.…”

“…Entrainment may also cause changes in fish population dynamics (e.g. recruitment, growth, mortality) or elicit novel fish community interactions, including predation and competition (DePhilip et al, 2005;Perry et al, 2015). Moreover, genetic integrity may decline if entrained fish interbreed with individuals in recipient locations (Spoelstra et al, 2008).…”

Including independent estimates and uncertainty to quantify total abundance of fish migrating in a large river system: walleye (Sander vitreus) in the Maumee River, Ohio

“…The mean of the final gamma distribution describing migration rate was 10.7 km·day −1 , with a standard deviation of 10.1 km·day −1 , capturing the great amount of variability in the measurement of migration rate observed with each method. Past studies have measured walleye migration rates in other systems and reported values have ranged from approximately 4 km·day −1 (Palmer et al 2005) to 10 km·day −1 (Paragamian 1989;DePhilip et al 2005), which are contained within the modeled migration rate distribution used in this study.…”