Assessing habitat usage and movement patterns of Walleye in Thunder Bay, Lake Superior.

TBWAT

May 2022 - December 2027

Loss of habitat and pollution lead to a decrease in Walleye abundance in Thunder Bay during the 1900's. Since then, there have been various habitat restoration efforts aimed at increasing the Thunder Bay Walleye abundance to historic levels. However, little information is known about whether Walleye are using these rehabilitated areas successfully or not. The goal of this project is to tag 20 Walleye using V13 transmitters in the spring of 2023 in Thunder Bay to monitor their movement patterns and to assess how susceptible they are to being harvest.

• determine important Walleye spawning habitat locations in Thunder Bay
• assess Walleye susceptibility to angling mortality in Thunder Bay
• determine if Thunder Bay Walleye leave Thunder Bay and interact with other known Walleye stocks (i.e. Black Bay)

• Kyle Stratton (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry - Upper Great Lakes Management Unit) - kyle.stratton@ontario.ca
• Fritz Fischer (Ontario Ministry Of Natural Resources And Forestry)
• Eric Berglund (Ontario Ministry Of Natural Resources And Forestry)

• Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry - Upper Great Lakes Management Unit