Publications

Stocks of walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) were severely depressed in Saginaw Bay in the 1970s. In 1979, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources began intensive stocking of walleye fingerlings to bolster fish populations. Subsequent to stocking, the walleye fishery has recovered. The study objective was to determine if recovery was due to the stocking program or natural reproduction.

Long-term ice records (1823-1994) from six sites in different parts of the Laurentian Great Lakes region were used to show the type and general timing of climatic changes throughout the region. The general timing of both freeze-up and ice loss varies and is driven by local air temperatures, adjacent water bodies and mixing, and site morphometry. Grand Traverse Bay and Buffalo Harbor...

Progress toward lake trout restoration in Lake Michigan is described through 1993. Extinction of the native lake trout fishery by sea lamprey predation, augmented by exploitation and habitat destruction, resulted in an extensive stocking program of hatchery-reared lake trout that began in 1965. Sea lamprey abundance was effectively controlled using selective chemical toxicants. The...

Native lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) once thrived in the deep waters of eastern Lake Erie. The impact of nearly 70 years of unregulated exploitation and over 100 years of progressively severe cultural eutrophication resulted in the elimination of lake trout stocks by 1950. Early attempts to restore lake trout by stocking were unsuccessful in establishing a self-sustaining population...

The septa lengths of bivalve shells were used to estimate shell lengths of the largest zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) crushed and consumed by freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) to determine if size limitation could preclude the effectiveness of drum as a biological controller of the zebra mussel. We examined gut samples of drum (273 to 542 mm long) collected from western Lake...

Because the 57-mm-mesh gill net is the predominant gear in the Lake Eric fishery for yellow perch Perca flavescens, gear selectivity is an important factor operating in that fishery. The selectivity curve for age-groups 2–6 is roughly symmetrical with peak vulnerability at age 4; younger and older perch are substantially less susceptible to the gear. The Beverton-Holt yield-per-recruit...

We examined PCB concentration data for seven species of Lake Michigan fishes to determine what trends were apparent °20 yr after PCB restrictions became effective. Total PCB concentrations in all seven species, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brown trout (Salmo trutta), chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)...

The extinction of the native populations of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Lake Michigan in about 1956 has been followed by a decades-long attempt to reestablish self-sustaining populations of this valuable species in habitats it formerly occupied throughout the lake. One of the most recent management strategies designed to facilitate recovery was to make a primary management...

We compared predatory demand by pelagic planktivorous prey fish with invertebrate production in Lake Michigan during 1987 and in Lake Ontario during 1990. Predation by the planktivores in Lake Ontario was nearly fourfold higher than in Lake Michigan (approx. 87 g wet weight∙m−2∙year−1). Predation rates on Mysis were comparable in Lakes Michigan and Ontario (approx. 21 g∙m−2∙year−1)...

From 1983 to 1992, 71 species representing 38 genera from the Calanoida, Cladocera, Cyclopoida, Mysidacea, Rotifera, Mollusca and Harpacticoida comprised the offshore zooplankton community of Lake Michigan. Our data demonstrate that the composition and abundance of the calanoid community after 1983 is not unlike that of 1960s and that species diversity of the calanoid community is more...

We examined the question of whether the lake trout restoration program in the Great Lakes has developed brood stocks of adequate size to sustain natural reproduction. Stock size criteria were developed from areas of the Great Lakes where natural reproduction has been successful (defined as detection of age-1 or older recruits by assessment fishing). We contrasted them with stocks in...

Reliable estimates of abundance and survival, gained through mark-recapture studies, are necessary to better understand how to manage and restore lake trout populations in the Great Lakes. Working with a 24-year data set from a mark-recapture study conducted in Lake Superior, we attempted to disclose information on tag shedding by examining recaptures of double-tagged fish. The data set