Spawning Reef Contribution in Keweenaw Bay
Project Title
Quantifying Spawning Reef Contributions to Keweenaw Bay Mixed-Stock Fisheries
Project Code
KWBRC
Project Duration
May 2022 - April 2025
Project Description
This project seeks to quantify the relative importance of 28 spawning reefs to tribal and commercial fisheries in Keweenaw Bay. Lake trout and lake whitefish, up to 200 individuals per species, will be tagged in the three areas that have historically had the greatest fishing pressure; Bete Grise, Buffalo Reef, and Huron Islands. Presence/absence, timing, and duration on spawning reefs will be quantified over a three year period using acoustic receivers on each reef. A key component of this project is a 29 receiver grid (10 km spacing) covering the extent of Keweenaw Bay that will be used to identify dominant movement patterns and better understand the potential fate of tagged fish that are no longer detected in Keweenaw Bay (emigration vs delayed mortality).
Investigators