Publications

Periodid midwinter, early spring, and summer mortalities of alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) have been common in the Great Lakes since the first appearance of the silvery marine invader in Lake Ontario in the mid-1870's. In 1967 a nationally publicized dieoff of tremendous magnitude (estimated at several hundred million pounds of fish) in Lake Michigan resulted in losses to industry...

The movement of sea lampreys into the upper Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, and Huron) initiated a series of biological changes which have extended beyond the fish directly attacked by the parasite. The threat posed by the sea lamprey was not generally recognized until it was well established in all the lakes and had seriously affected the fisheries in Lakes Huron and Michigan. As the...

Albinism in fishes is relatively rare except in some stocks of hatchery-reared salmonids. In the Petromyzonidae, only four albino lampreys have been reported.

Data, primarily benthological, are given for collections made at 14 stations. Included are records of water transparency, water temperature, water samples for chemical analysis, and bottom samples for the analysis of the macrobenthos.

Stomachs were examined from 1,473 walleyes (Stizostedion vitreum vitreum) of the 1959 year class collected in western Lake Erie from June 1959 to October 1960. In the same period, the relative abundance and lengths of potential forage species were determined from trawl catches. The walleye fed almost entirely on fish. In 1959 the food was dominated first (in June and July) by yellow...

Since benthological samples collected with dredges are usually too large to be preserved in toto, a washing method must be employed to reduce the sample volume without losing or damaging the organisms. Traditionally, the sample is washed in a sieve until the volume is small enough for convenient handling or preservation. Most washing procedures are time-consuming and laborious. To save...

Today's inland commercial fisheries are small independent operational units widely dispersed on lakes, impoundments, and streams throughout the vast central plains. The problems of the fisheries are diverse and unique to local conditions. Inland fisheries are particularly important to the Nation in times of international conflict because they are distributed throughout the area and the...

Through a combination of ecosystem homeostasis and the perversity of man and nature, oftentimes the significant biological changes effected by environmental modifications are not detected until long after the initial change has taken place. The immediate impact, which may range from the spectacular to the undetectable, is a deceptive measure of the long-term and often more important...

More than 300 pairs of fine and coarse mesh plankton net samples were collected in the northern basin of Lake Chad during an 18-month period, June 1967 to November 1968. The seasonal distribution and abundance of the dominant species of Rotifera and Crustacea are given in addition to a general description of the hydrology and circulation of the northern basin of the lake. The composition...

Blood cell types of the sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, are described and identified and the lineage of mature circulating cells in peripheral blood is traced to blast cells in the hematopoietic fat body. The fat body appears to be the phylogenetic precursor of bone marrow in higher forms, since blood cells originate and begin maturation in this tissue. Experimental animals were...

Five female American brook lampreys, Lampetra lamottei, collected in lakes Michigan and Huron averaged nearly twice as long and about six times as heavy as American brook lampreys of normal size. Three factors suggested that the giant lampreys may have fed parasitically after metamorphosis: morphological adaptations of the species for parasitic life, their large size, and absence of...

A program for plotting bathythermograph transect data on a computer (IBM 1130) printer is available from the Great Lakes Fishery Laboratory. Temperature values are printed in positions proportional to their depths and distances from shore. Contour lines are drawn manually through the plotted points.