The Impact of seasonal hypoxia on lake whitefish migration, habitat selection, and mortality revealed by telemetry detections

Efforts to improve water quality by changing the amount of nutrients in the water can affect fish habitats and fisheries. This makes it important to coordinate fishery management and water quality efforts, taking into account how fish behave in response to changes in their habitat. This data set combines information from acoustic telemetry, which tracks the movements of native lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), with forecasted water quality factors, such as temperature and dissolved oxygen levels, across Lake Erie during seasonal hypoxia (periods of low oxygen). Lake whitefish were tagged between 2015 and 2019, and their detection locations were recorded using the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS) from 2017 to 2021, with annual data collected from 2015 to 2021. The abiotic (non-living) water quality parameters for each detection were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. The migrations of lake whitefish across different jurisdictions lead to seasonal changes in exploitation risk, underscoring the importance of focused fishery management strategies. Understanding how this risk changes along their migration paths supports time-area based management, though measuring this risk is challenging due to different fishing methods and bycatch species in various locations. This data set uses unique acoustic telemetry data to study lake whitefish migrations through different management areas that experience seasonal hypoxia and support various fisheries.