Fisheries-dependent data for Cisco in Green Bay of Lake Michigan and Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron between 1929 and 1970

This data release presents part of historical fisheries-dependent data for Cisco (Coregonus artedi) in Green Bay of Lake Michigan and Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron collected by scientists from U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center, including three tables for monthly Cisco-catch and fishing-effort data and two tables for biological data of Cisco individuals. The monthly Cisco-catch and fishing-effort data tables are for small-mesh gill-net fisheries in Green Bay and Saginaw Bay (GBSB_GN.csv), pound-net fisheries in Green Bay and Saginaw Bay (GBSB_PD.csv), and shallow trap-net fishery in Saginaw Bay (SB_ST.csv) in the period 1929–1970.

The biological data of Cisco individuals are from historical Saginaw Bay Cisco scale collections of 1942,1945, 1946, 1948, and 1953. These Ciscoes were caught by commercial trap-net fishing carried out by Bay Port Fish Company, located in Bay Port, Michigan. The table “SB_Scale_Collection.csv” includes data associated with the commercial trap-net fishing operations. The table “SB_Scale_Bio.csv” includes biological data (length, weight, sex, maturity) recorded on scale envelopes, and age (i.e., number of annuli on the scale) and back-calculated total length at annulus formation for a subset of these fish samples.

For questions about availability and physical and digital access for the historical fisheries-dependent data collected by scientists from the Great Lakes Science Center, reach out to the Science Center.