Spanish River Cisco Telemetry
Project Title
Determining seasonal movements, habitat use, site fidelity, and run timing of spawning cisco in the Spanish River, Ontario, Canada
Project Code
SRCIS
Project Duration
September 2023 - September 2025
Project Description
Coregonines (ciscoes and whitefishes) are the focus of conservation and restoration efforts across the Great Lakes. An important component of these efforts is the identification of key habitats, such as spawning habitats. Unfortunately, our understanding of Great Lakes coregonine spawning habitats and behaviors is limited. Historical accounts indicate that several coregonine species underwent spawning migrations to rivers in the Great Lakes. Contemporary data indicate that connecting waters, including the Detroit and Saint Marys rivers, support spawning aggregations of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and cisco (Coregonus artedi), and the resurgence of lake whitefish spawning in Green Bay tributaries shows that coregonines can re-establish spawning runs in rivers despite a legacy of habitat degradation. Importantly, sampling that occurred as a precursor to this project in 2022 led to the discovery of a probable spawning run of cisco in the Spanish River, Ontario, Canada. This work will augment our understanding of the ecology of this spawning run, including its seasonal movements, habitat use, site fidelity, and run timing, which will in turn inform our understanding of coregonine diversity and function and support restoration efforts.
Investigators
Participating Organizations