Muskellunge and Northern Pike Ecology and Management: Important Issues and Research Needs

Abstract

Ecología y manejo de los lucios muskallonga y europeo: aspectos relevantes y necesidades de investigación Las nuevas técnicas de investigación y los cambios en las pesquerías de los lucios muskallonga, Esox masquinongy y europeo, E. lucius, han contribuido a modificar paradigmas sobre la ciencia y manejo de estas especies. Se llevó a cabo un simposio sobre biología, ecología y manejo de los lucios muskallonga y europeo en la reunión anual de la Sociedad Americana de Pesquerías, en Little Rock, Arkansas, y en un panel de discusión organizado después del simposio se identificaron diversas prioridades de investigación y manejo que incluyen identificación de hábitats de desove, restauración de hábitats y de poblaciones, genética, mortalidad selectiva y explotación. En el futuro, la investigación sobre los lucios muskallonga y europeo se debe enfocar en cuantificar la supervivencia a nivel de huevos y de edad 0; sobre la base de las características del hábitat, evaluar rigurosamente los esfuerzos de restauración de hábitat mediante diseño de sondeos estadísticos, descripción amplia de la estructuración genética de las poblaciones y desarrollar un mejor entendimiento acerca de cómo la mortalidad selectiva y la explotación pueden alterar la estructura de tallas, proporción de sexos y características de la historia de vida de estas especies. Los resultados y la información que se genere tanto de la investigación propuesta como de las prioridades de manejo, serán críticos para la conservación y restauración de las poblaciones auto sostenibles de los lucios muskallonga y europeo.

Behaviour in a standardized assay, but not metabolic or growth rate, predicts behavioural variation in an adult aquatic top predator Esox lucius in the wild

“…Indeed, although not significant due to a small sample size, Kobler et al () reported that the more active habitat opportunistic adult E. lucius grew somewhat faster than the less explorative behavioural types. Other studies have found that angled E. lucius were also more likely to exhibit faster growth rates than those fished by electrofishing (Crane et al , ) and to be more active and have larger home ranges (Pieterek, ). Therefore, it seems likely that fast‐growing E. lucius vulnerable to angling gear probably encompass the bolder, more active and maybe more aggressive behavioural phenotypes, which have been linked to metabolism in several fish species (Metcalfe et al, ).…”

“…To test whether the standardized behavioural assay was ecologically valid, acoustic transmitters were inserted in a sub‐set of the experimental animals prior to release back into a wild, which allowed tracking of their swimming behaviour in a natural lake. Esox lucius is one of the most important target species for recreational fisheries around the globe and is subjected to intensive exploitation (Arlinghaus & Mehner, ; Arlinghaus et al , 2009 a ; Crane et al , ). Because a natural population of E. lucius was used in the present experiments, it was also possible to test whether capture technique predicted the behaviour of the E. lucius in order to disentangle whether behavioural types are a driver of the vulnerability of individual E. lucius to different gear types, such as angling and electrofishing (Wilson et al , ; Biro & Dingemanse, ; Wilson et al , ).…”

“…Because a natural population of E. lucius was used in the present experiments, it was also possible to test whether capture technique predicted the behaviour of the E. lucius in order to disentangle whether behavioural types are a driver of the vulnerability of individual E. lucius to different gear types, such as angling and electrofishing (Wilson et al , ; Biro & Dingemanse, ; Wilson et al , ). Angling may select for bolder and more active individuals (Alós et al , ; Klefoth et al , ; Härkönen et al , ), whereas a technique such as electrofishing may be selective for shyer, less active and slower growing fishes (Crane et al , ) due to the confinement of electrofishing to the structured littoral zones, which serves as refuge for low active behavioural types in E. lucius (Kobler et al , ).…”

Spawning Season Distribution in Subpopulations of Muskellunge in Georgian Bay, Lake Huron

“…Muskellunge may be unable to adapt to changing conditions if spawning habitat becomes degraded, as appeared to be the case in Severn Sound (Leblanc et al 2014). Our findings highlight the importance of identifying and protecting Muskellunge habitat, which has long been a goal of managers (Craig and Black 1986;Farrell et al 2007;Crane et al 2015;Midwood et al 2015). Shoreline modifications and anthropogenic impacts continue to be major stressors on spawning and nursery habitats (Dombeck 1986;Rust et al 2002;Leblanc et al 2014) and have been identified as critical issues for Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay (Liskauskas et al 2007).…”

The Laurentian Great Lakes: A case study in ecological disturbance and climate change

“…These changes will affect the population dynamics and distributions of lotic species (Poff et al., ) and may threaten persistence of rare species or those that have poor dispersal ability (Lawton & May, ). For example, muskellunge spawns shortly after “ice out” when temperatures are ~13°C, typically in shallow, flooded areas with heavy vegetation (Crane et al., ; Scott & Crossman, ). If the timing of the flood does not correspond with spawning temperatures, muskellunge may not have access to spawning habitat at the proper time.…”