Lake Michigan Longnose Suckers
Project Title
Unravelling mysteries of longnose suckers through tagging and tracking
Project Code
LMLNS
Project Duration
April 2025 - August 2028
Project Description
The goal of this study is to determine the spawning site fidelity and spatial ecology of longnose suckers in Lake Michigan. The specific objectives are to 1) determine the proportion of fish that return to the tributary in which they were tagged, 2) determine the maximum movement distance and/or area of the acoustic receiver grid utilized, and 3) determine if there are any seasonal trends in habitats selected by individual fish, outside of the spawning period. Based on observations garnered from the white sucker research to date, and some longnose sucker research on the Boardman River on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, the following predictions correspond to the objectives listed above. 1) We predict a return rate of at least 50% of individuals to the tributary that they were tagged in across the life span of the tags, 2) We predict that longnose suckers will utilize receivers along the extent of the eastern coastline of the Door County Peninsula, both nearshore and offshore. This is predicted based on gillnet surveys by resource managers finding longnose suckers across a range of depths, and 3) We predict the most noticeable seasonal trend will be the movement of tagged longnose suckers to start orienting themselves along the shoreline and moving toward their favored tributary by March of each year, with movements into the tributary in April and returning back out to Lake Michigan before May.
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