Evaluation of fisheries restoration actions such as the reestablishment of coregonine populations requires a life stage approach to evaluate program success and improve understanding on potential recruitment bottlenecks. Prior to their extirpation, Lake Ontario...
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GLRI
Expanding efforts to document and understand Great Lakes coregonine river spawning – Year 2
Restoration and conservation efforts hinge on the identification of key habitats, such as fish spawning habitats (Lewis et al. 1996; Kondolf 2000), and the potentially distinct populations that use them. Knowledge of these habitats can help to ensure that conservation...
Expanding efforts to document and understand Great Lakes coregonine river spawning
Coregonines were once among the most diverse and ecologically, economically, and culturally important groups of fishes in the Great Lakes (Koelz 1929; Smith 1968; Eshenroder et al. 2016; Duncan 2020). Coregonines declined dramatically throughout the Great Lakes in...
Effects of incubation temperature on survival, growth, morphology, and gene expression of artificially reared cisco (Coregonus artedi): implications for best practices for captive propagation and restoration
A key tool for Great Lakes coregonine restoration is reintroduction via fish stocking. Stocking programs are currently underway, including efforts to restore cisco Coregonus artedi in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron (Lake Huron Technical Committee 2007; Riley and Ebener 2020)...
Evaluating post-stocking movement, mortality, and habitat use of fall-stocked cisco Coregonus artedi in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron with acoustic telemetry
The Lake Huron Committee aims to restore cisco Coregonus artedi in Lake Huron (DesJardine et al. 1995; Lake Huron Technical Committee 2023). To that end, the Lake Huron Technical Committee has implemented a plan for re-establishing a population in the main basin of...
Testing habitat’s influence on Cisco reproductive success using egg translocation
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative studies from the Coordinated Science and Monitoring Initiative, Native Fish Restoration, and DOI Steering Committee from fiscal years 2018 - 2022 have rapidly improved our understanding of how habitat influences coregonine spawning...
Defining bloater spawning habitat to inform potential impediments to Lake Ontario bloater reintroduction
Efforts to reintroduce bloater (Coregonus hoyi) in Lake Ontario have been ongoing for 11 years (Weidel et al. 2022). Although more than 1.1 million bloater have been released, the objective of a self-sustaining population has yet to be achieved. Reintroduction efforts...
Implementing science planning methods within the Coregonine Restoration Framework via expert knowledge elicitation and workshop facilitation
The Coregonine Restoration Framework includes a Planning Phase that is divided into four elements: (1) resolving coregonine taxonomy using genetics and ecology and delineating spatial units for conservation and restoration, (2) describing and mapping historical and...
Is handling and transport stress limiting post-stocking survival of yearling bloater C. hoyi in Lake Ontario?
Bloater (C. hoyi) have been stocked in Lake Ontario for 11 years with limited success (15 total recaptures; Weidel et al., 2022). Short term (1-12 days) post-stocking survival has been estimated at 42% with 22% of the mortality occurring in the first hour post-release...
Hatchery production and research to support restoration of sustainable Coregonine populations in Lake Ontario (FY23, FY24)
Coregonine species in the Great Lakes, such as Cisco and Bloaters, historically represented a substantial component of the forage base for native cold-water fish like Lake Trout and Atlantic Salmon. Extirpation or depletion of deepwater Bloater populations has left...
Developing a high throughput method to genotype coregonines at a standardized panel of loci for genetic monitoring and parentage-based tagging applications
A central component of coregonine restoration in the Great Lakes is hatchery production, and active supplementation programs are underway in Lakes Ontario and Huron. Importantly, these efforts must consider the decades of work in other salmonids that demonstrate...
Supporting evaluation components of the Lake Huron Technical Committee’s Cisco reintroduction study for FY24
Cisco (Coregonus artedi) are functionally absent from the western main basin of Lake Huron and as such restoring Cisco “to a significant level” (DesJardine 1995) remains an unmet objective for Lake Huron management agencies (Riley and Ebener 2020). In 2007 the Lake...
Implementation of Coregonine Population Viability Analysis within the Coregonine Restoration Framework – Year 3
The Coregonine Restoration Framework (CRF) provides an adaptive management structure to guide restoration of this suite of species in the Great Lakes Region. Initial steps in this effort established four science teams [Resolve Taxonomy, GAP Analysis, Population...
Examining the potential for unrepresentative sampling during cisco Coregonus artedi gamete collections for the Saginaw Bay restoration effort – Year 2
The cisco Coregonus artedi restoration effort in Saginaw Bay utilizes gametes sourced from northern Lake Huron, in the Les Cheneaux Islands and Drummond Island region (LHTC 2007). Gametes have been collected from bays in the Les Cheneaux area and Whitney Bay (Drummond...
Hatchery production and research to support restoration of sustainable coregonine populations in Lake Ontario
This project focuses on the production of Coregonines at the USFWS-ANFH and NEFC hatcheries, working in partnership with USGSTLAS, NYSDEC, OMNRF, and USFS-LOBS to further progress towards fish community goals outlined by the GLFC Lake Ontario Committee (LOC) through contributing to Coregonine reintroduction and restoration. Production requests originate from the LOC and the NYSDEC. Fish health monitoring is a required component of the production program to transfer fish, maintain optimal fish health in culture facilities, and facilitate the restoration of both the natural forage base and the predatory Lake Trout populations in the Great Lakes. Production of bloater (Coregonus hoyi) in FY22 is part of a multi-year restoration effort for Lake Ontario.
How have changes to coregonine spawning habitat influenced reproductive success?
Lake Ontario’s Cisco, Coregonus artedi, and Lake Whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis populations have declined for centuries and surveys suggest populations are impeded during early life stages. This project developed methods to quantify habitat specific coregonine egg...
Enhancing Kiyi (Coregonus kiyi) research to support the conservation and restoration of deep-water coregonine diversity in the Laurentian Great Lakes
The deep-water coregonines of the Coregonus species complex (including C. hoyi, C. kiyi, C. nigripinnis, C. zenithicus, C. johannae, and C. reighardi) in the Laurentian Great Lakes were among the fishes most impacted by overfishing, invasive species, and habitat...
Implementation and testing of hatchery enhancements at Allegheny National Fish Hatchery to increase production and improve health and quality of juvenile bloater raised for restoration stocking in Lake Ontario
The proposed project will install 16 15-foot circular fiberglass tanks to replace 10 45-year-old concrete raceways (scalable down to 8 tank option). The project will also assess a side-by-side production level comparison of fish health, water use, fish growth,...
Deep-water cisco captive broodstock developed from wild-caught juveniles: proof of concept with Lake Michigan bloater
Hatchery broodstocks (Coregonus artedi and C. hoyi) created via fertilizing eggs with sperm from wild spawning populations or captive brood stock fuel current restoration efforts for ciscoes in the Great Lakes. But, creating these broodstock involves hazards to access...
Developing a coordinated approach to monitoring of coregonine brood and cultured progeny in the R3 FWS Hatchery Program
Supporting evaluation components of the Lake Huron Technical Committee’s cisco reintroduction study: a multi-agency effort to promote cisco recovery in the western basin of Lake Huron (FY19)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service conducted two surveys in 2019 aimed at documenting the current distribution, composition, and density of the larval coregonid community in Saginaw Bay. Sampling was limited to pelagic ichthyoplankton and beach seining due to the...
Supporting evaluation components of Lake Huron Technical Committee’s cisco reintroduction study: a multi-agency effort to promote cisco recovery in the western main basin of Lake Huron (FY21)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service conducted larval coregonine surveys in 2021 aimed at documenting the current distribution, composition, and density of the larval coregonid community in Saginaw Bay. Sampling of the ichthyoplankton community was limited to pelagic...
A coordinated approach to monitoring of a coregonine brood and cultured progeny in the R3 FWS hatchery program
Broodstock management and monitoring programs are vital components of all types of stocking initiatives (e.g. Captive, Supportive, restorative, rescue). Broodstock collection and development should aim to preserve genetic diversity and minimize inbreeding and stocking...
Region 3 wild coregonine brood stock collection activities for FY 2021 in support of restoration activities on Lake Huron and Lake Ontario
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Midwest Region Fisheries Program carried out two projects in support of a multi-agency effort to restore coregonid populations in Lakes Huron and Ontario. The first project began in 2015 when USFWS began documenting the spawning...
Use of multi-gear sampling to improve abundance estimates of demersal Coregonines in the Great Lakes
Acoustic and mid-water trawl surveys have been used to estimate abundance and biomass of Great Lakes coregonines for decades. Acoustic sampling has potential to be an important tool in the assessment of future coregonine restoration efforts because new populations...