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Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Report 2012

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Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Report 2012 Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Report 2012 Report contact: Michael Pollock Ph.D. Instream Flow Ecologist Wate r Quality Services 101 -108 Research Drive Saskatoon, SK, S7N3 Phone: (306) - 964-1556 Fax: (306) - 933-6820 Email: [email protected] 2012/2013 Report Contributions 1. Field crew John Salamon Iain Phillips Nicole Prestie Kate Prestie Lance Lamontagne Tyler Shemrock Meghan Carr Brett Vallee Michael Pollock 2. Analysis GIS analysis: Michael Pollock and Meghan Carr Background research: Michael Pollock and Meghan Carr Stable Isotope analysis: Iain Phillips, Dave Braun and Bjoern Wissel River2D Model creation: Michael Pollock and Kangsheng Wu 3. Report preparation and editing Mike Pollock Glen McMaster Meghan Carr 4. Funding SaskPower Ministry of the Environment (Fish and Wildlife Development Fund) Government of Canada (Habitat Stewardship Program) 2 Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Project 2012 Report | Table of contents Table of contents ............................................................................................................................. 3 Figure Legend ................................................................................................................................. 7 Table Legend ................................................................................................................................ 10 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 12 1.0 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 18 1.1 Sturgeon life history and status ...................................................................................... 18 1.2 Saskatchewan River populations .................................................................................... 21 1.3 Water Security Agency mandate and history of flow management ............................... 23 1.4 Study objectives .............................................................................................................. 27 1.4.1 Habitat availability in relation to flow .................................................................... 27 1.4.2 Habitat use and availability ..................................................................................... 29 1.4.3 Population abundance and health ............................................................................ 29 2.0 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................................ 30 2.1 Habitat availability in relation to flow ............................................................................ 30 2.1.1 Data collection ........................................................................................................ 31 2.1.2 Flow regime selection ............................................................................................. 33 2.1.3 Data Organization and River2D model creation ..................................................... 33 2.2 Habitat use and migration ............................................................................................... 35 2.2.1 Surgical implant of tags .......................................................................................... 35 2.2.2 Telemetry tracking .................................................................................................. 36 2.2.2.1 Remote passive towers ......................................................................................... 36 2.2.2.2 Aerial tracking ...................................................................................................... 37 3 Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Project 2012 Report | 2.2.2.3 Vehicle and snowmobile tracking ........................................................................ 38 2.2.2.4 Boat tracking ........................................................................................................ 38 2.2.3 Telemetry analysis .................................................................................................. 39 2.3 Population abundance and health ................................................................................... 40 2.3.1 Mark and recapture ................................................................................................. 40 2.3.1.1 Abundance ............................................................................................................ 44 2.3.2 Stable isotope analysis ............................................................................................ 44 Stable isotope analysis can be used to link an organism with its environment. It can be used to link organisms to their source of energetic input (i.e. diet; Pollock et al. 2010) via nitrogen and carbon signatures, or in the case of the current report it can link sturgeon to recently inhabited areas via deuterium. ................................................................................ 44 2.3.2.1 Sampling and sample treatment ........................................................................... 44 2.3.2.2 Stable isotope analyses ......................................................................................... 46 2.3.2.3 Data analyses ........................................................................................................ 47 2.3.3 Genetic analysis ...................................................................................................... 49 2.3.4 Population structure and flow ................................................................................. 49 3.0 Results ..................................................................................................................................... 49 3.1 Sturgeon River2D model results ..................................................................................... 49 3.2 Telemetry ........................................................................................................................ 53 3.2.1 Migration distance ................................................................................................... 57 3.2.2 Migration destination and river use ......................................................................... 58 3.2.3 Migration timing ..................................................................................................... 58 3.2.4 Area use ................................................................................................................... 59 4 Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Project 2012 Report | 3.2.5 Catch order .............................................................................................................. 63 3.3 Population health ............................................................................................................ 65 3.3.4 Population age structure .......................................................................................... 65 3.3.5 Reproductive success and historic flow .................................................................. 67 3.3.6 Stable isotope results ............................................................................................... 67 3.3.7 Genetic analysis ...................................................................................................... 71 3.3.7.1 Genetic Diversity ................................................................................................. 71 4.0 Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 73 4.1 River2D modeling .......................................................................................................... 73 4.1.1 River2D summary and recommendations ............................................................... 74 4.2 Migration and telemetry ................................................................................................. 75 4.2.1 Telemetry and migration summary and recommendations ..................................... 76 4.3 Population abundance and health ................................................................................... 76 4.4 Overall conclusions ........................................................................................................ 77 4.5 Future work..................................................................................................................... 78 5.0 References ............................................................................................................................... 81 Appendix One: Historical South Saskatchewan River Flow ...................................................... 88 Appendix Two: Sturgeon habitat suitability curves: Velocity, depth and substrate habitat suitability used in the River2D model for Lake Sturgeon within the Saskatchewan River as adapted from Fisheries and Oceans (2009). .................................................................................. 89 Appendix Three: Genetics report from Institute for Watershed Science. ..................................... 90 Appendix Four: Images from River2D analysis. ........................................................................ 107 5 Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Project 2012 Report | Appendix Five: Summary of migration distances covered in 2010, 2011 and 2012 (rkms) by sturgeon tagged in 2009 at the forks (sturgeon found less than three times outside
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