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Lake trout struggling to rebound in Lake Erie

Friday, 19 April 2013 02:47 3-17-2013

Lake trout struggling to rebound in Lake Erie

Anglers chasing transplanted Pacific Ocean salmon on lakes such as Ontario, Huron and Michigan occasionally tie up with a native lake trout and generally are happy about it.

Rarely is the linkup made on Lake Erie, although Tom Harbison’s Ohio record, a 201/2-pound, 34-incher caught in April 2000, proves that such a thing is done. Shallow and temperate Lake Erie, being the southernmost outpost for the cold-water lakers in North America, produces neither numerous nor especially large specimens.

The biggest lake trout caught on a rod and reel weighed 72 pounds and came out of Great Bear Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories. A lake trout weighing 102 pounds has been taken with a net.

Lake trout in the Great Lakes have survived hard times brought by commercial overfishing, pollution and the sea lamprey — an invasive, eel-like parasite that clamps its teeth on a fish’s side and sucks out the life.

Sea lampreys, unleashed from Lake Ontario into the upper lakes by way of an overhauled Welland Canal more than 90 years ago, hit Lake Erie’s relatively tiny lake trout population hard. Though lampreys have been slowed by poisons released in their spawning streams, they have yet to be stopped.

In fact, in recent years, sea lamprey numbers on Lake Erie “have been out of control,” said Kevin Kayle, aquatic biology supervisor at the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Fairport Fisheries Research Station. Things have gotten so bad that the wildlife division invited a team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to go after spawning lampreys in the Chagrin River and in Conneaut Creek this spring.

The same federal agency is in the process of trying to find out whether young lake trout placed in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie, which hasn’t been the previous practice, might boost the species’ reproductive capacity.

“It’s an experiment on the road to recovery for lake trout in Lake Erie,” Kayle said. “It should be a pretty interesting experiment.”

An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 lake trout roam Lake Erie, virtually all of them residing in the deeper eastern basin off Pennsylvania and New York, though none appears to be a product of unaided nature. The population is mostly the result of hatchery fish released at eastern points of the lake.

No evidence suggests that lake trout are reproducing in Lake Erie, though they did in the past. Sea lampreys aside, the troubles that befell lake trout — and which also befell species including lake whitefish, herring and the extinct blue pike — can be traced to a period of low water, high temperature and pollution that occurred during the 1950s and ’60s.

The combination of negative factors produced large “dead zones” — areas of water deplete of the oxygen required to sustain many fish species and other forms of life. The low-oxygen zones mostly formed in the shallow central and western basins, off the Ohio shore.

A remnant of lake trout survived that period by living in the deeper, cooler and oxygen-sufficient waters of eastern Erie. However, those fish might have lost the wherewithal to spawn successfully. Natural spawning, which takes place in late fall and early winter, is thought to have occurred when trout migrated toward the shallow end of the lake to make use of its nursery-friendly bottom and structure.

Even though the dead zones largely disappear during autumn, eliminating that hurdle, the eastern population of lake trout appears to have little inclination to migrate west, Kayle said.

The young, hatchery-raised lake trout released in the western and central basins might wander east to grow up, but the hope is that those fish will be imprinted with a need to return to their release area, where spawning success is at least possible when they reach maturity.

Releases of 40,000 yearling lake trout raised at the federal hatchery in Warren, Pa., took place over two days last week both at Catawba Island State Park and at Fairport Harbor in Ohio waters. That follows a November release of about 120,000 surplus lake trout fingerlings at the same sites.

What happens next is up to the trout, the lake and probably the sea lampreys.

Stocking of Atlantic salmon in Lake Huron and tributaries to occur this spring

Tuesday, 02 April 2013 21:45 4-02-2013
Stocking of Atlantic salmon in Lake Huron
and tributaries to occur this spring

The DNR’s Fisheries Division originally experimented with rearing and stocking Atlantic salmon from 1972 to 1982. These stockings resulted in only modest returns, and the program was essentially inactive until 1986. That year, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) began rearing and stocking Atlantic salmon into the St. Marys River under a memorandum of agreement with the DNR. The fish are reared at the LSSU aquaculture laboratory, located directly on the St. Marys River. The laboratory now serves as the sole source of Atlantic salmon eggs in Michigan and continues to offer recreational fishing opportunities on Lake Huron while providing LSSU students with educational experiences in fisheries research, culture and management.

In 2010, the DNR began experimental rearing of Atlantic salmon at its Platte River State Fish Hatchery near Beulah. After two years of working through disease problems and investing in equipment to control disease outbreaks, the production of Atlantic salmon yearlings in 2013 has been exceptional.

“This year’s production of Atlantic salmon yearlings has gone according to plan, and we’re pleased to report the fish are healthy and disease-free,” said Ed Eisch, Northern Lower Peninsula Area Hatchery manager. “Fish production personnel have worked hard to raise these fish from eggs to healthy yearlings. The fish are starting to smolt and are ready to be stocked into a lake environment.”

According to Todd Grischke, Lake Huron Basin coordinator, the stocking of these fish in Lake Huron represents the culmination of many years of planning and cooperation.

“Fisheries Division managers have been working with constituent organizations over the past 18 months to identify appropriate stocking locations for Atlantic salmon,” said Grischke. “Many sites were proposed and evaluated according to things such as stream temperatures, public access and the ability for the DNR to evaluate returning adults. We also focused on those locations that would optimize the chances of success and provide stream, pier and open water fishing opportunities.”

Atlantic salmon are one of several species of salmonids stocked in the Great Lakes, and are caught by anglers on both Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

For more information, visit the Atlantic salmon section on the Michigan Fish and How to Catch Them section of the DNR website.

Effort is key to Lake Erie thriving

Thursday, 28 March 2013 03:02

Effort is key to Lake Erie thriving

3/28/2013

There were some long faces in the room when Lake Erie’s virtual report card was displayed for all to see at the recent Waterkeeper conference. After a detailed examination of the key areas of concern, the brows were knit, the expressions pained, and the anxiety impossible to disguise.

Lake Erie faces a prime number of major issues – seven. According to one member of the all-star lineup of experts who took to the podium at the Lake Erie Waterkeeper annual gathering at Lourdes University on Thursday, the lake gets poor grades in most areas, but there is also hope in others — some progress is being made.

Jeff Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant program and one of the most knowledgeable and respected voices on the health of the lake, laid out critical areas that provide an often sobering barometer on the state of the lake:

1. Sedimentation

2. Phosphorus and nutrient loading

3. Harmful algal blooms

4. Aquatic invasive species

5. The “Dead Zone”

6. Climate change

7. Coastal economic development

Reutter said Lake Erie remains a leading example in the U.S. on the impact of pollution, but it can also boast being the best test case on how an ecosystem can recover if the proper measures are put into place. And the lake is not alone with its current troubles.

“This is not just an Ohio problem or just a Lake Erie problem: This is a worldwide problem,” Reutter said about the issues threatening the lake.

Because Lake Erie drains 4.5 million acres of agricultural land, it takes in large amounts of sediment, both from the rivers and from the disposal in the open lake of material from dredging operations. Reutter said he does not expect that issue to improve anytime soon, because alternative disposal methods are very costly.

On the phosphorus and nutrient loading front, Reutter said he hopes conditions will improve as farmers become more actively involved in helping limit the amount of nutrient runoff that reaches the lake.

“I think the people in the agricultural community will respond, so we’re headed in the right direction,” he said.

Lower water levels, an increase in the frequency of storms, and warmer weather all play roles in exacerbating the problems with harmful algal blooms. The lake experienced a massive bloom in 2011, when record patterns of rainfall produced significant runoff, but the algal blooms were much less of an issue in the very dry 2012, Reutter said.

Aquatic invasive species have created a crisis in Lake Erie for many decades, with lampreys, zebra mussels, white perch and gobies headlining a lengthy list of notorious invaders. Reutter gave the lake a poor chance of fending off the latest threat — Asian carp.

“There are just too many pathways,” Reutter said, referring to water links that would allow these fish to reach the Great Lakes and ultimately find an ideal home in the nutrient-rich, warm-water habitat of Erie’s Western Basin. “It is probably only a matter of time.”

The Lake Erie “Dead Zone” is as ominous as its name suggests. Each summer, a layer of cold water gets trapped along the bottom of the Central Basin and when the decomposition of dead algae uses up the oxygen in this region, there is none to replace it due to the layering of the water. Large fish kills can occur when high winds turn over this cold, oxygen-poor layer of water and send it to the surface. The Western Basin is too shallow to experience a similar temperature layering of the water.

Reutter said the outlook for remedying the Central Basin “Dead Zone” remains poor. “Heavy nutrient loads and reduced water levels may make it impossible to eliminate,” he said.

The uncertainties that climate change brings to the issues confronting the health of the lake leaves Reutter to expect no improvement on that front, as well.

On the coastal economic development issue, Reutter said he expects the value of property along the lake to remain high, and that coastal tourism will continue to grow as fishing and boating remain strong, and birding interests bring an increasing number of visitors to the Lake Erie shoreline.

“We can see clearly that Lake Erie provides a real economic engine for the entire state,” he said. “Sometimes, we are just too close to it, so we take that for granted.”

Reutter maintains optimistic the Herculean efforts that brought Lake Erie from being given up for dead around the time of the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969, to its status as the “Walleye Capital of the World” just two decades later, can be repeated.

Reutter warns that Lake Erie’s path to avoiding an environmental catastrophe and making another recovery will likely be a costly and difficult one, but not an impossible or improbable one.

BY MATT MARKEY
BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR

Asian carp may be back in Lake Erie

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:11

Asian carp may be back in Lake Erie

Is the dreaded Asian carp swimming in Lake Erie again?

It’s a mystery as big as the lake.

The question terrifies several agencies in the U.S. and Canada, but one scientist says there is a strong likelihood it is back.

The analysis by U.S. and Canadian researchers said as few as 10 mature females and even fewer males could establish a population in the lakes if they find rivers suitable for spawning.

Officials said previously that it would take hundreds of the carp for a successful invasion.

“We have evidence that suggests the most likely explanation (about) how its environmental DNA got there (in Lake Erie) is because of the presence of live Asian carp,” said David Lodge, director of Notre Dame University’s Environmental Change Initiative in Indiana.

Lodge said the area where positive samples of Asian carp were found, in the lake’s western basin, is where the last live fish was captured in 2000.

“There are other explanations ... for how the DNA could have got there,” said Lodge. “They are possible, but not plausible.”

According to Notre Dame’s Center for Aquatic Conservation, plants and animals shed cellular material (like traces of DNA) into their surrounding environment, and this material can be collected and analyzed. Environmental DNA extracted from water samples can be used to determine if a target species has been in the vicinity.

If toxic blue-green algae are the biggest threat to the lake’s survival, Asian carp are a close second.

Asian carp are a group of highly invasive bottom feeders that have infiltrated the waterways of the American Midwest. The fear is they could disrupt Lake Erie’s ecology if they increase to large numbers.

Two of the most-feared Asian carp are bighead carp and jumping silver carp. They compete with native fish like trout and pickerel for food such as perch. These native species support a compete with native fish like trout and pickerel for food such as perch.

Asian carp have no natural predators and have an explosive breeding capacity. They consume as much as 40 per cent of their body weight daily and monopolize food sources of other fish and marine life.

They can grow up to 1.2 metres long and weigh 45 kilograms.

Asian carp are prohibited inside Ontario’s borders unless they are dead.

“You can well imagine why we are so worried,” said Mark Burrows, a Canadian scientist who works with the International Joint Commission, a binational organization.

“We have enough challenges in Lake Erie already.”

About a year ago, scientists who were analyzing samples from Lake Erie discovered environmental DNA of the Asian carp. The researchers, led by Lodge, found genetic material at two locations: at the mouth of Maumee Bay in Michigan, and in Sandusky Bay in Ohio.

For several months, agencies in the U.S. and Canada increased surveillance, took additional samples and involved commercial fishermen, but no further evidence of the presence of Asian carp was found.

So where in Lake Erie are the Asian carp hiding?

Lodge says there is a chance that there aren’t too many Asian carp in the lake right now. “Given the intense (search) efforts, perhaps not too many have a self-sustaining population.”

The discovery of the environmental DNA is disconcerting, says Tammy Newcomb, a senior water policy analyst with Michigan’s department of natural resources.

It could have come from dead fish, from the digestive system of a bird, or a rotting fish, say researchers

“But the best presumption to take is that there is live fish,” she said.

It’s tough to find live Asian carp, though.

Newcomb said looking for the invasive fish is like hunting for a flea in a 75-litre aquarium where “you have a net the size of a quarter of a teaspoon and you are also blindfolded.”

But no one is giving up.

When positive DNA was confirmed last year, Ontario, too, took multiple samples from its side of the lake, said Eric Boysen, director of the biodiversity branch with the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources

None of the samples came back positive and no trace of live fish was found.

“I don’t know if there (are) any live Asian carp ... the DNA could have come through a number of sources,” said Boysen. But it’s had us look very carefully,” said Boysen.

“We are continuing with surveillance,” he said. “We don’t want to see Asian carp in Lake Erie.”

The fishy facts

Asian carp species, native to China, were brought to the U.S. in the 1970s to control algae problems in Arkansas aquaculture ponds. But there was flooding, says Burrows, and many escaped and started reproducing in the Mississippi River. They have since been working their way up north.

Asian carp could find enough food and breeding areas to reach all five of the Great Lakes within 20 years if allowed to gain a foothold, said a report released in the summer of 2012.

The analysis by U.S. and Canadian researchers said as few as 10 mature females and even fewer males could establish a population in the lakes if they find rivers suitable for spawning.

Officials said previously that it would take hundreds of the carp for a successful invasion.

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