Seasonal movements of muskellunge in the St. Clair – Detroit River System: Implications for multi-jurisdictional fisheries management

Journal of Great Lakes Research
By: , and 

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Abstract

The St. Clair-Detroit River System contains a world-class Great Lakes muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) fishery that has avoided the declines observed in many Great Lakes muskellunge populations. Muskellunge are an upper trophic level predator, and therefore a naturally low-density species. Limited fishery-independent data exist on which to base management decisions. To remedy this, we initiated an acoustic telemetry study in May of 2016, in collaboration with the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System. Our objective was to describe patterns of movement of muskellunge in this large and open system to better understand their spatial ecology. We acoustically tagged 133 muskellunge in the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, and movements of 58 fish that passed our data quality control screens were analyzed. We utilized mixed modelling to assess the effects of sex, length, release location, and season on daily movement rates. We found that movement rates only differed among seasons, with highest movement rates occurring in the fall and lowest movement rates in the winter. Muskellunge tagged at different locations exhibited distinct residency patterns, and fish frequently crossed jurisdictional and waterbody boundaries. Ultimately our study highlights the scope and patterns of muskellunge movement in a large, unimpounded system and demonstrates that management of these fish would benefit from consideration of their full distribution covering multiple management jurisdictions.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Seasonal movements of muskellunge in the St. Clair – Detroit River System: Implications for multi-jurisdictional fisheries management
Series title Journal of Great Lakes Research
DOI 10.1016/j.jglr.2020.12.006
Volume 47
Issue 2
Year Published 2021
Language English
Publisher Elsevier
Contributing office(s) Great Lakes Science Center
Description 11 p.
First page 475
Last page 485
Country Canada, United States
State Michigan, Ontario
Other Geospatial St. Clair – Detroit River System
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