Lake Sturgeon Movement Along Lake Superior's South Shore

LSSLS

April 2016 - October 2028

Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) rehabilitation in Lake Superior has become a priority over the last 20 years, building off recommendations from A Lake Sturgeon Rehabilitation Plan for Lake Superior. Effective rehabilitation and management is dependant on a basic understanding of movement and dispersal patterns of all life stages. However, attempts to track movement through tag recaptures and returns has provided insufficient data. Up to 200 lake sturgeon will be acoustically tagged during spawning runs and index surveys in 2016-2018. Movement will be detected by acoustic receiver arrays deployed along the shoreline and in spawning tributary mouths.

• Determine spawning tributary fidelity of adult lake sturgeon utilizing the Bad, Ontonagon, Sturgeon, and Tahquamenon rivers
• Describe stock mixing and utilization of Chequamegon Bay, WI
• Determine movement patterns and age of first spawning of lake sturgeon stocked in the Ontonagon River
• Collaborate with other lake sturgeon movement studies in the St. Louis River, MN/WI, and in Eastern Lake Superior

• Joshua Schloesser (United States Fish and Wildlife Service) - joshua_schloesser@fws.gov
• Henry Quinlan (United States Fish And Wildlife Service)

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
• Michigan Department of Natural Resources
• Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

• This project is funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative