schreckstoff

I take no offense nor blame and I think the discussion & debate is healthy. These threads are my favorite part of LOU. GillT is right, that Bloater and LT rearing is Federal, but as requested by the Lake Ontario Committee. The net is still out there, we are hoping to pull it on Friday. Thank you for your cooperation steering clear of the buoys!

Dances, yes. Like the pen stocked trout and salmon we are testing if we can improve survival when they have a few days to become ‘conditioned’ to the water where they are stocked. This is our first time trying anything like this so quite a few obstacles to overcome. I’m aware of Cisco eating alewife in Lk Michigan and probably annywhere there are big Cisco and small alewife , but I haven’t heard or seen evidence of Bloater eating Alewife. Cisco tend to live shallower and closer to shore, whereas Bloater are smaller, live deeper, and focus on eating Mysis shrimp.

Great question, it’s never to my knowledge been observed but all the evidence suggests deep reef/rock/gravel spawning. The commercial fishers. Are probably the best source of that info. I’m Not sure we have habitat in LO anymore. I’m hoping we get some projects trying to figure that out, but information has a hard time going upstream in the Great Lakes.

The pen is north west of the lighthouse, is marked with 4 high flying float flags surrounding it, and 2 yellow surface floats. The net will be in that location till Monday and then there may be another one set for a few days deeper. These are experiments testing ways to increase survival of stocked Bloater. Best to give the marker buoys a wide berth to avoid snagging and losing gear. Happy to address questions or concerns. Thank you! -Brian Weidel

Great Lakes Fishery Commission puts out schedules that might have what you are looking for. Past few years are below. 2021 http://sealampreycontrol.info/temp/2021 Treatment schedule.pdf 2022 http://www.glfc.org/temp/2022 Treatment schedule.pdf 2023 http://www.glfc.org/temp/2023 Treatment Schedule.pdf

West is best

Water level appears “up” to me (observing from Oswego). IJC graph suggests about 8” above average.

Thanks for the update!

Oldest I see in our records is Age-7. Not many in that age (0.06%) and length on the age-7 ranged from 6 to 8 inches. Largest I see that we interpreted an age is almost 9 inches and that one was interpreted as age-4. You might have seen in my talks how Alewife growth (size at age) changes when fish hook and spiny water flea populations are really abundant. Interestingly those changes didn't seem to change RS growth.

Interesting, Thanks for sharing !

I think it might not be done for a year or so. They have some really cool Salmon footage from L Michigan. They are amazing videographers, I am hoping to try and film deep April Alewives, out in 400ft, this Spring. Oh that’s 120m for Yankee, ha!

https://mobile.twitter.com/alltooclearfilm Link to the film I was talking about last night at the LOCBA meeting. (Sorry for my audio visual issues) These film makers are great to work with, they get some truly amazing underwater footage!

IMO From a fish habitat perspective those 6 dams on the Oswego River have some of the , if not the largest negative impact on LO fish populations AND local resource based economies. The canal creates completely nonnative impounded aquatic habitat in place of what would be 25+ miles of high gradient warm-cool water river habitat that would produce or support walleye, SMBs, sturgeon, American Eel, and likely many of other native fishes, in addition to the lake-run fisheries for salmonids. The Dams Also limit what I surmise would be impressive rafting - kayaking opportunities. The Dams limit the natural recruitment and pulse of wood into the lake which I suspect doesn’t help the ever dwindling native lake population of Slimy Sculpin which use wood to spawn (adhesive eggs). In the place of these resources there is some modest electricity produced , that from my understanding does not lower local energy costs , And of course the ever important a handful of boats get to traverse to Lake Ontario from the canal. Would live to see the math on what that contributes locally. From a decision making standpoint it seems very odd to me why those dams are still in operation. If I owned land in that area I’d be asking my representatives daily why support habitat destruction and impede resource based economies. Maybe this will be windmill I tilt at in my retirement. soap box over, happy to hear and consider alternative viewpoints

If you post topics you are interested in here related to prey fish, native fish restoration, or other LO fish science I can try to address some of them that night.