Otoliths reveal a diverse age structure for humper lake trout in Lake Superior

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
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Abstract

Humpers are one of at least three morphological variants of wild lake trout Salvelinus namaycush that maintain self-sustaining populations in Lake Superior. In an early study, bumpers from Isle Royale were shown to have a sharply truncated age distribution that was attributed to high mortality after age 11, but we suspected that these fish were underaged. In August of 1989 and 1992 we collected spawning humper lake trout from the same area and estimated their ages using both scales and sagittal otoliths. Humpers in our sample ranged from 5 to 13 years, based on scale annuli, but counts of sagitta annuli revealed ages of 8 to 28 years. Individual discrepancies between ages from scales and sagittae varied from –2 to 20 years, but differences between scale and otolith ages did not increase with individual age. We applied the von Bertalanffy growth model to the humper length-at-age data to indirectly assess the accuracy of aging estimates. The model significantly overestimated mean asymptotic length when scale ages were used, but the mean asymptotic length estimate was more similar to observed lengths when sagitta ages were used. Our results corroborate evidence that bumpers in Lake Superior grow more slowly and mature at a smaller size than lean lake trout; however, the age composition of bumpers is more diverse than previously thought. This particular population experiences little or no exploitation; the presence of older fish provides one standard by which the success of lake trout rehabilitation programs can be evaluated and emphasizes the need for accurate aging techniques.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Otoliths reveal a diverse age structure for humper lake trout in Lake Superior
Series title Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
DOI 10.1577/1548-8659(1996)125<0844:ORADAS>2.3.CO;2
Volume 125
Issue 6
Year Published 1996
Language English
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Contributing office(s) Great Lakes Science Center
Description 8 p.
First page 844
Last page 851
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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