Assessing the potential for differential contributions of spawning stocks to Lake Erie yellow perch populations.
Paris Collingsworth, PhD. student and Elizabeth Marschall. Funded by: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration.

Yellow perch provide one of the largest commercial and sport fisheries in Lake Erie, but recruitment often fluctuates widely from one year to the next. Currently, the yellow perch population in Lake Erie is managed in units based primarily on administrative and political boundaries, with little regard to biological properties of the population. However, yellow perch populations within these management units are likely a conglomeration of stocks that may become isolated during parts of the year, such as during the spawning season, but are otherwise mixed. Due to the inflow of specific rivers interacting with the morphometry of the separate basins of Lake Erie, yellow perch stocks residing in the western, central and eastern basins of Lake Erie experience distinct developmental environments. Basin-specific differences in temperature, productivity, and prey species composition could affect the energetic condition of perch stocks. Additionally, different levels of fishing pressure among different management units likely influences mortality rates and the age/size structure. Such geographical variation may influence the amount of energy that females from different basins can allocate towards reproduction during a given year, making it possible that females from particularly productive areas could contribute disproportionately to year class strength of the lakewide population.

Graduate students Kody Kuehnl and Paris Collingsworth
pulling gill nets in the western basin of Lake Erie.

Our project seeks to identify basin-specific factors that may affect recruitment success in Lake Erie yellow perch. By intensively sampling different life stages of yellow perch and habitat variables in the western and central basins, we will determine how these systems differ and relate these differences to recruitment. The overarching goals of the project are to 1) characterize likely spawning habitats of yellow perch in Lake Erie, 2) characterize the nature of spawning stocks of yellow perch in Lake Erie and 3) estimate the contribution of separate spawning stocks to the whole-lake population of juveniles after year-class strength has been set.

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Paris can be emailed at collingsworth.8 "at" osu.edu

Size distribution of spawning female yellow perch
sampled in the western basin of Lake Erie.

Technician Jamie Fangman pulling young-of-the-year
yellow perch otoliths.

Head technician Jen Cudney removing the
ovaries from a gravid female.