Acoustic Tag Retention and Mortality of Juvenile Cisco (Coregonus artedi)

Session: Smart Lakes: Real-Time Monitoring, Networking, and Analytics Across the Great Lakes (3)

Jeremy Kraus, USGS, [email protected]
Grant Scholten, USGS, [email protected]
Neil Ringler, SUNY-ESF, [email protected]

Abstract

Telemetry is commonly used in ecological studies, allowing researchers to monitor movement and survival of fish populations, providing insight into preferred habitat, post-stocking success, and population sustainability. Telemetry tag life is related to tag size, which is critical when studying juvenile populations. There is uncertainty about the optimal tag size for a given size of fish and species. Efforts to evaluate native Coregonine restoration projects in Lake Ontario and the New York Finger Lakes stimulated interest in effective telemetry methods. We examined the tag size issue in Cisco  Coregonus artedi) by surgically implanting two different size acoustic dummy tags (0.31 and 0.62 g) in Ciscos ranging in size from 3.5—36.0 g (79 -164 mm TL) and monitored survival and condition in the laboratory for 30 days. Preliminary results indicate that
tag size should not exceed 9% of a fish’s weight. Furthermore, individuals less than 8 g (102 mm
TL) had greater probability of rejecting tags and higher mortality than larger fish. Future work
will include adding to the current data set, experimenting with larger tags and larger  individuals, and testing other Coregonines native to the Great Lakes Region.