Acoustic telemetry is at the forefront of fisheries research and management in the Great Lakes, and the combination of the ever-expanding receiver network coupled with over 25,000 tagged fish across 53 species (since 2010) continues to provide a wealth of critical...
Post Archive:
Cisco/C. artedi
Implementation of Coregonine Population Viability Analysis within the Coregonine Restoration Framework – Year 4
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...
Hatchery production and research to support restoration of sutainable Coregonine populations in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie – Year 7
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...
Do hardened shoreline habitats help or hurt? Quantifying the extent of coregonine spawning and egg incubation suitability on human-modified habitats in Lake Ontario
Conserving and restoring Cisco (Coregonus artedi) and Lake Whitefish (C. clupeaformis) populations is a management objective within individual Great Lakes and at the basin scale. Similar to other fishes of conservation concern, anthropogenic changes to spawning...
Continuing evaluation components of the Lake Huron Technical Committee’s Cisco reintroduction study for FY25
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...
Evaluation of sequential chemical marking of Oxytetracycline, Alizarin Red S, and Calcein in calcified structures of bloaters (Coregonus hoyi)
This project will investigate the unique chemical marking patterns produced within the otoliths, lower jaw, and ribs of bloaters after sequential immersions of Oxytetracycline (OTC), Alizarin Red S (ARS), and calcein. This project is fully aligned with the Coregonine...
Implementing science planning methods within the Coregonine Restoration Framework via expert knowledge elicitation and workshop facilitation – Year 2
The Coregonine Restoration Framework (Bunnell et al. 2023) 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...
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
Our project team sampled five Great Lakes tributaries in fall 2022 and spring 2023 to assess evidence of tributary spawning by coregonines, such as cisco Coregonus artedi and lake whitefish C. clupeaformis. Specifically, we sampled the Chaumont River, Niagara River,...
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...
Implementing science planning methods within the Coregonine Restoration Framework via expert knowledge elicitation and workshop facilitation
Hatchery production and research to support restoration of sustainable Coregonine populations in Lake Ontario (FY23)
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...
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
Implementation of Coregonine Population Viability Analysis within the Coregonine Restoration Framework – Year 3
An extensive review of published and raw data was performed to support the best parameterization of unstructured and structured population viability analysis (PVA) models for Lake Erie Cisco. The unstructured model was used to estimate historical population size and...
Examining the potential for unrepresentative sampling during cisco Coregonus artedi gamete collections for the Saginaw Bay restoration effort
Great Lakes cisco populations declined during the 19th and 20th centuries due to factors such as overfishing, habitat degradation, and interactions with invasive species (Van Oosten 1930; Crowder 1980; Myers et al. 2009; George 2019). Cisco are now considered...
Development of conceptual early life history models and evaluation of sampling techniques in support of long-term monitoring for cisco and lake whitefish
Recruitment is set early during life (<2 years of age) for many fish populations (Hjort 1914, Houde 1987). From fertilization to juvenile stages, fishes are susceptible to abiotic and biotic factors that directly or indirectly influence growth, condition, and survival (Ludsin et al. 2014, Pritt et al. 2014). The mechanistic processes influencing recruitment, their interactions,and the timing at which they are most influential remains unclear for many fishes. By improving understanding of early life history (ELH) ecology and recruitment constraints, we can improve monitoring and support more informed management decisions. Long-term ELH monitoring programs that inform management are limited for cisco (Coregonus artedi) across the Great Lakes.
Supporting evaluation components of the Lake Huron Technical Committee’s Cisco reintroduction study for FY23
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 (Liskauskas et al. 2007). In 2007 the Lake...
Detection of Lake Erie Cisco using eDNA – Applications to Cisco Restoration in the Laurentian Great Lakes
Understanding extant diversity in compromised and healthy ecosystems is important to maintaining or restoring species diversity. Cisco (Coregonus artedi) and other coregonines were once found in all five Great Lakes and were central to Great Lakes food webs. The loss...
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...
Supporting evaluation components of the Lake Huron Technical Committee’s Cisco reintroduction study: a multi-agency effort to promote Cisco recovery in the western main basin of Lake Huron (FY22)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service conducted larval coregonine surveys in 2022 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...
Hatchery production and research to support restoration of sustainable coregonine populations in Lake Ontario (FY21, FY22)
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...