A Long-Term Assessment of Adult Lake Sturgeon Returns From Streamside Rearing Using Passive PIT Tag Antennas
Grant: # 1850
Grant Amount: $202,338.10
Board Decision Year: 2019
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians - Natural Resource Department (Manistee)
Natural Resource Department
Martell, Archie ([email protected]) 231-398-2193
2019 Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Fish Populations: Ecological and Biological Research to Inform Management - Ecological and biological fisheries research to inform management
Project Details
: Streamside-reared Lake Sturgeon have been stocked in several Lake Michigan tributaries since 2004. Stocked Lake Sturgeon have been PIT tagged prior to stocking which provides an opportunity to remotely evaluate juvenile and adult returns as well as potential straying of stocked fish. We installed passive PIT tag antennas in the stocked Manistee, Cedar, Whitefish, and Milwaukee rivers as well as the unstocked Peshtigo River to evaluate stocked Lake Sturgeon returns and document stocked fish straying into the unstocked Peshtigo or other rivers. In all rivers two PIT tag antennas were installed in close proximity so direction of fish movement (i.e. upstream or downstream) could be determined. Locations selected for antenna installation were downstream of the first suitable spawning habitat fish would encounter during upstream migration. PIT tag antennas operated either continuously through the year or seasonally from early spring through late fall. Stocked fish were detected returning to all the monitored rivers and most detections in a target river were of fish stocked there. Two Lake Sturgeon stocked in the Cedar River were detected in the Peshtigo River. Cedar River antennas detected fish stocked in Cedar River and wild Lake Sturgeon that had been originally captured and tagged in the Fox River (N=1) and Menominee River (N=2). One stocked fish from the Kewaunee River was detected in Cedar River and one was also detected in the Milwaukee River. PIT tag detections were not limited to Lake Sturgeon as 16 other species of fish were detected; most of these were detected in Milwaukee River (Table 1). Most Lake Sturgeon detections occurred in spring when fish are expected to run rivers to spawn but some detections also occurred in fall (Oct-Nov). Data collected during this early phase of monitoring confirms streamside rearing and stocking has resulted in adult fish returning to the stocked rivers and the expectation is the number of fish returning to each river will continue to increase as stocked year classes reach maturity. There was some evidence of stocked fish straying (3% of stocked Lake Sturgeon detected) although it is not clear if fish that strayed were spawning in rivers where they were detected. In future years we will continue to operate PIT tag antennas to monitor for stocked fish returning as adults. In addition, surveys to document natural reproduction will be undertaken as the abundance of returning stocked fish continues to increase and natural reproduction is expected to occur.