Drummond Island Lake Trout Spawning
Project Title
Reproductive behavior of wild and hatchery lake trout in the Drummond Island Refuge, Lake Huron
Project Code
DRMLT
Project Duration
August 2010 - January 2015
Project Description
Lake trout supported a valuable fisheries in the Great Lakes until the 1950s, when overfishing and sea lamprey predation resulted in the loss of most populations. Despite consistent stocking efforts since the 1960s, restoration of these populations has been slow. The reasons are numerous, but may be related to differences in spawning behavior between hatchery and wild trout. This study uses acoustic telemetry to describe and compare the spawning behaviors of wild and hatchery lake trout adjacent to Drummond Island, Lake Huron. Tagged fish are monitored by an array of approximately 150 acoustic hydrophones during the fall spawning season. Fish behavior data will be overlaid on detailed bathymetric and substrate data and compared with environmental variables (e.g., water temperature, wind speed and direction, and wave height and direction collected within the array by a Tidas 900 weather buoy) to develop a conceptual behavioral model. Sites suspected of being spawning habitats based on telemetry data will be verified through use of divers and trapping of eggs and fry.
Objectives
To compare the behaviors of spawning aggregations of wild and hatchery lake trout in terms of timing of arrival at spawning grounds, male-female aggregations, traveling over spawning areas, diel movements, and return rates to sites of previous spawning.
To describe and compare the environmental conditions associated with hatchery and wild lake trout behavior at time of spawning, specifically to determine whether differences in environmental conditions occur associated with behavioral expression.
To describe and compare the behavior of the two hatchery strains of lake trout stocked adjacent to the Drummond Island refuge to determine whether movement behaviors differ.
Management Benefits
Our results will provide information critical to understanding how lake trout restoration efforts in the Great Lakes may be improved and to identifying management strategies for increasing the reproductive success of lake trout. Determining whether lake trout reproductive success is limited by the habitat selection and behavior of spawning hatchery-reared lake trout will focus future research on areas that are likely to lead to successful lake trout restoration.
Investigators
Thomas Binder (Michigan State University) - tr.binder@gmail.com Charles Krueger (Michigan State University) Stephen Riley (United States Geological Survey) Charles Bronte (United States Fish And Wildlife Service) Mark Ebener (Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority) Christopher Holbrook (United States Geological Survey - Hammond Bay Biological Station) Ji He (Michigan Department Of Natural Resources) Roger Bergstedt (United States Geological Survey)
Participating Organizations
Great Lakes Fishery Commission United States Geological Survey United States Fish and Wildlife Service Michigan Department of Natural Resources Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority
Funding
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Publications
Johnson, N. S., Higgs, D. M., Binder, T. R., Marsden, J. E., Buchinger, T. J., Brege, L., Bruning, T., Farha, S. A., and Krueger, C. C. (2017) Evidence of sound production by spawning lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in lakes Huron and Champlain. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 10.1139/cjfas-2016-0511
Binder, T. R., Marsden, J. E., Riley, S. C., Johnson, J. E. , Johnson, N. S., He, J., Ebener, M. P., Holbrook, C. M. , Bergstedt, R. A., Bronte, C. R. , Hayden, T. A., and Krueger, C. C. (2017), Movement patterns and spatial segregation of two populations of lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush, in Lake Huron. Journal of Great Lakes Research 43:108-118. DOI: 10.1016/j.jglr.2017.03.023.
Binder, T. R., Holbrook, C. M., Hayden, T. A., and Krueger, C. C. (2016), Spatial and temporal variation in positioning probability of acoustic telemetry arrays: fine-scale variability and complex interactions. Animal Biotelemetry 4:4 DOI: 10.1186/s40317-016-0097-4.
Binder, T. R., Riley, S. C., Holbrook, C. M., Hansen, M. J., Bergstedt, R. A., Bronte, C. R., He, J., and Krueger, C. C. (2016) Spawning site fidelity of wild and hatchery lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in northern Lake Huron. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2016, 73:18-34, 10.1139/cjfas-2015-0175
Grimm, A. G., Brooks, C. N., Binder, T. R., Riley, S. C., Farha, S., Shuchman, R., and Krueger, C. C. (2016), Identification of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush spawning habitat in northern Lake Huron using high-resolution satellite imagery. Journal of Great Lakes Research 42:1 127-135.
Riley, S. C., Binder, T. R., Tucker, T. R., Menzies, J., Eyles, N., Janssen, J., Muir, A. M., Esselman, P. C., Wattrus, N. J. and Krueger, C. C. (2016), Islands in the ice stream: were spawning habitats for native salmonids in the Great Lakes created by paleo-ice streams? Fish Fish. doi:10.1111/faf.12173
Binder, T.R., Thompson, H.T., Muir, A.M., Riley, Marsden J. E., Bronte C. R., Krueger, C. C. (2015), New insight into the spawning behavior of lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush, from a recovering population in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 98: 173. doi:10.1007/s10641-014-0247-6
Binder, T. R., Holbrook, C. M., Miehls, S. M., Thompson, H. T., and Krueger, C. C. (2014), Use of oviduct-inserted acoustic transmitters and positional telemetry to estimate timing and location of spawning: a feasibility study in lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush. Animal Biotelemetry 2:14 DOI: 10.1186/2050-3385-2-14
Riley, S. C., Binder, T. R., Wattrus, N. J., Faust, M. D., Janssen, J., Menzies, J., Marsden, J. E., Ebener, M. P., Bronte, C. R., He, J. X., Tucker, T. R., Hansen, M. J., Thompson, H. T., Muir, A. M., and Krueger, C. C. (2014), Lake trout in northern Lake Huron spawn on submerged drumlins. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 40:415–20
