Satellite image Lake O

[Gill-T]

Modis has been hit or miss lately. Finally got a decent shot. Lots of cold blue water this year. 
 

[GAMBLER]

Erie is breaking up and melting faster than I thought it would.  Bring on the warmth!  

[schreckstoff]

Great Pic!
 

When Erie is iced over, there is WAAY less sediment dumping into LO, likely higher embryo survival & better hatch for fish that spawn in Niagara & it’s plume 

[orangediablo]

1 hour ago, schreckstoff said:

Great Pic!
 

When Erie is iced over, there is WAAY less sediment dumping into LO, likely higher embryo survival & better hatch for fish that spawn in Niagara & it’s plume 

Can you explain the reason?  I'll plead ignorance and would be interested in the rationale.

[Gill-T]

Less wind driven sediments with ice coverage. There are some thoughts that a quagga mussel substrate and filtering may be enhancing the record walleye hatches in turbid western Lake Erie and its dirty tributaries. The same principle may be applied to the Niagara question. My experience on the water is the harder and longer winter leads to a greater gray water Niagara plume (more sediment) in the spring during the time alewives start moving inshore. Maybe greater survival of adult alewives in a turbid Niagara flow as they can evade the onslaught of predators leads to a greater spawning return?  Just theory. 

Edited March 3 by Gill-T

[Gill-T]

Dr Weidel, has there been any look at any sort of correlation between salinity of the Niagara flow and alewife hatch rates?  Just wondering if during a long prolonged winter, would there be a benefit to an ocean going fish like alewives to exist and spawn in water with higher salt content?

[orangediablo]

1 hour ago, Gill-T said:

Wind

Guess I'm more curious on the increased hatch/survival rate due to less sediment.

[GAMBLER]

18 hours ago, orangediablo said:

Guess I'm more curious on the increased hatch/survival rate due to less sediment.

Silt covering eggs kills them.  Years with less silt in the river = no egg coverage and a better chance at survival.  

[schreckstoff]

I’m mostly referring to Lake Trout , but also Cisco and Lake Whitefish. Those species spawn in late fall / early winter and their embryos incubate for 4-5 months, overwinter, on the bottom of Lake Ontario. Ideally those embryos would be nestled down in clean rock crevices where there is a little bit of water flow and not a lot of silt or decaying algae on the rocks. Over the past 200 years those habitats have become more and more rare in Lake Ontario and its embayments, which is a leading reason why those populations are less abundant. The spawning habitat additions in Chaumont Bay a few years ago and the substrate cleaning on Lake Eries Brockton shoals last year are experiments trying to figure out the effectiveness of different habitat rehabilitation strategies,  

In some years a dozen or so wild LT are caught in the trawl surveys. Embryo incubation conditions are better in those years and we are trying to figure out what those conditions are, one hypothesis is that colder years, with more ice, means less silt and better hatches.

[schreckstoff]

Regarding salinity ….I guess haven’t really thought about it. In their native habitats Alewife run and spawn in freshwater so I’m not sure there would be any correlation. Best predictors of a good hatch  is an early warm spring and summer, and a not so big hatch the year before.