Michael L. Toneys | Geology Reports

USGS1997

Survival rates of adult lake trout in northwestern Lake Michigan, 1983-1993

The restoration of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush in Lake Michigan has been an elusive goal of resource management agencies in the Great Lakes region. In this study, we estimated annual survival rates of adult lake trout from an area in northwestern Lake Michigan known as the Clay Banks refuge. We tagged and recaptured fish with gill nets during the fall spawning season ( N = 12,175; 1983–1989 and 1991–1993) and with pound nets in the spring ( N = 52,035; 1984–1990 and 1992–1993). We fit Cormack–Jolly–Seber models to the two sets of data. We had insufficient data to analyze annual differences in survival rates of fall-tagged fish, but we were able to estimate an overall annual survival rate of 0.67. Annual survival rates of spring-tagged fish varied between 0.53 and 0.88 and increased after 1987–1988. In addition to the mark–recapture studies, we analyzed catch rates of lake trout from gill-net and pound-net surveys to estimate survival rates using catch curve analyses; these annual rates were generally lower than those estimated from mark–recapture analyses of tagged fish. However, survival rates of lake trout from the Clay Banks refuge appeared to meet the minimum rate believed necessary for restoration of this species in Lake Michigan. Furthermore, adult survival rates have been increasing in recent years, and lake trout restoration in Lake Michigan is not hampered by low survival of adult fish. We hypothesize that the recent decrease in abundance of adult lake trout is primarily due to decreases in survival rates of lake trout younger than 6 years.

North American Journal of Fisheries Management↗

USGS1995

Progress toward lake trout restoration in Lake Michigan

Progress toward lake trout restoration in Lake Michigan is described through 1993. Extinction of the native lake trout fishery by sea lamprey predation, augmented by exploitation and habitat destruction, resulted in an extensive stocking program of hatchery-reared lake trout that began in 1965. Sea lamprey abundance was effectively controlled using selective chemical toxicants. The initial stocking produced a measurable wild year class of lake trout by 1976 in Grand Traverse Bay, but failed to continue probably due to excessive exploitation. The overall lack of successful reproduction lakewide by the late 1970s led to the development and implementation in 1985 of a focused inter-agency lakewide restoration plan by a technical committee created through the Lake Committee structure of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Strategies implemented in 1985 by the plan included setting a 40% total mortality goal lakewide, creating two large refuges designed to encompass historically the most productive spawning habitat and protect trout stocked over their home range, evaluating several lake trout strains, and setting stocking priorities throughout the lake. Target levels for stocking in the 1985 Plan have never been reached, and are much less than the estimated lakewide recruitment of yearlings by the native lake trout stocks. Since 1985, over 90% of the available lake trout have been stocked over the best spawning habitat, and colonization of the historically productive offshore reefs has occurred. Concentrations of spawning lake trout large enough for successful reproduction, based on observations of successful hatchery and wild stocks, have developed at specific reefs. Continued lack of recruitment at these specific sites suggests that something other than stotk abundance has limited success. Poor survival of lake trout eggs, assumed to be related to contaminant burden, occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but survival has since increased to equal survival in the hatchery. A recent increase in lamprey wounding rates in northern Lake Michigan appears to be related to the uncontrolled build-up of lampreys in the St. Marys River a tributary of Lake Huron. If left uncontrolled, further progress toward restoration in the Northern Refuge may be limited.

Journal of Great Lakes Research↗