Publications

Eggs of feral lake trout collected in Lake Michigan were reared under laboratory conditions and monitored for egg hatchability, physical abnormalities, and survival of fry. Subsamples of eggs were also analyzed for PCB congeners. A negative correlation was found between egg hatchability and total PCBs but expressing PCB dose as dioxin equivalents did not produce as strong a correlation...

The Eurasian ruffe, Gymnocephalus cernuus, was collected from the lower St. Louis River, Lake Superior's westernmost tributary, in late summer 1987. This is the first known occurrence of the ruffe in North America. The likely vector for this species was ballast water of a transoceanic vessel dumped into the international port of Duluth-Superior located on the lower end of the St. Louis...

Emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides) and spottail shiner (N. hudsonius) were abundant historically in western Lake Erie. Recent changes in the fish community suggest that shiners may not compete favorably with the invading white perch (Morone americana) or the gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum). We examined the diets of emerald and spottail shiner and compared them to other...

Density-dependent recruitment of the bloater (Coregonus hoyi) in Lake Michigan during and after recovery of the population in about 1977-1983 was best reflected in the fit of the Beverton-Holt recruitment function to age -1 and -2 recruits and estimated eggs of parents surveyed with trawls. A lower growth rate and lower lipid content of bloaters at higher population densities and no...

We describe hatching and the morphological and meristic characteristics of 2.5-5.6 mm long ruffe protolarvae (Gymnocephalus cernuus). Eggs and sperm from St. Louis River ruffe were mixed, producing fertilized eggs that were 0.9-1.2 mm in diameter. Newly hatched protolarvae were 2.5-3.2 mm long. They had 14-15 preanal and 23-24 postanal myomeres, a continuous finfold of even width...

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochira) growth varies inconsistently with plant density. In laboratory and field experiments, we explored mechanisms underlying bluegill growth as a function of plant and invertebrate density. In the laboratory, bluegills captured more chironomids (Chironomus riparius) than damselflies (Enallagma spp. and Ischnura spp.), but energy intake per time spent searching...

A cladistic analysis of 50 characters from 26 taxa of coregonine fishes and two outgroup taxa yields a phylogenetic tree with two major branches, best summarized as two genera - Prosopium and Coregonus. Presence of teeth on the palatine, long maxillae, and long supra-maxillae are primitive, whereas loss of teeth, short or notched maxillae, and short supermaxillae are derived traits. P...

The post-glacial coregonine assemblage in the Great Lakes included several species of the genera Prosopium and Coregonus. Overfishing, habitat degradation, and competition with various exotic fish species severely reduced coregonine abundance and altered their distribution by the mid to latter part of the 20th century. Most of the original Coregonus species, some which were endemic to...

Environmental and economic problems associated with the colonization of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) in western Lake Erie created a need to investigate control mechanisms. Predation by fishes is one potential means of control, but predation on zebra mussels by native fishes in Lake Erie is unknown. The freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) is the most likely fish predator since...

Studies of lotic classification, zonation, and distribution carried out since the turn of the century were reviewed for their use in developing a habitat classification scheme for flowing water in the Great Lakes drainage basin. Seventy papers, dealing mainly with fish but including benthos, were organized into four somewhat distinct groups. A heirarchical scale of habitat measurements...

This section of the Classification and Inventory of Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat report was prepared as a series of individually authored contributions that describe, in various levels of detail, state-of-the-art techniques that can be used alone or in combination to inventory aquatic habitats and resources in the Laurentian Great Lakes system. No attempt was made to review and evaluate...

Harvest restrictions on striped bass Morone saxatilis fisheries in Atlantic coastal states were relaxed in 1990, but consistent, coastwide regulations of the harvest have been difficult to implement because of the mixed‐stock nature of the fisheries and the recognized contamination of Hudson River fish by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). We examined PCB concentrations and stock of...