LAKE ONTARIO FISH COMMUNITIES AND FISHERIES: 2013 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE LAKE ONTARIO MANAGEMENT UNIT LAKE ONTARIO FISH COMMUNITIES AND FISHERIES: 2013 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE LAKE ONTARIO MANAGEMENT UNIT Prepared for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission 2014 Lake Committee Meetings Windsor, ON Canada March 24-28, 2014 © 2014, Queen’s Printer for Ontario Printed in Picton, Ontario, Canada March 2014 Report ISSN 1201-8449 Please cite this report as follows: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. 2014. Lake Ontario Fish Communities and Fisheries: 2013 Annual Report of the Lake Ontario Management Unit. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Picton, Ontario, Canada. Report available on the following website: http://www.glfc.org/lakecom/loc/mgmt_unit/index.html TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ............................................................................................................................................. v 1. Status of Fish Communities 1.1 Nearshore Fish Community .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Offshore Pelagic Fish Community ....................................................................................... 1 1.3 Offshore Benthic Fish Community ...................................................................................... 2 2. Index Fishing Projects 2.1 Ganaraska Fishway Rainbow Trout Assessment .................................................................. 3 2.2 Eastern Lake Ontario and Bay of Quinte Fish Community Index Gill Netting ................... 7 2.3 Eastern Lake Ontario and Bay of Quinte Fish Community Index Trawling ...................... 22 2.4 Lake Ontario Nearshore Community Index Netting .......................................................... 37 2.5 Lake-wide Hydroacoustic Assessment of Prey Fish .......................................................... 46 2.6 St. Lawrence River Fish Community Index Netting—Thousand Islands .......................... 50 2.7 Credit River Chinook Assessment ...................................................................................... 54 2.8 Juvenile Atlantic Salmon Parr Survey ................................................................................ 55 2.9 Credit River Atlantic Salmon Smolt Survey ...................................................................... 58 2.10 Credit River Fishway ........................................................................................................ 60 2.11 Duffin’s Creek Resistance Board Weir ............................................................................ 61 3. Recreational Fishery Surveys 3.1 Western Lake Ontario Boat Angling Fishery ..................................................................... 64 3.2 Chinook Salmon Mark and Tag Monitoring ...................................................................... 67 3.3 Lake Ontario Volunteer Angler Diary Program ................................................................. 69 3.4 Bay of Quinte Ice Angling Survey ..................................................................................... 71 3.5 Bay of Quinte Volunteer Walleye Angler Diary Program ................................................. 74 3.6 Lake St. Francis Angling Survey ........................................................................................ 78 4. Commercial Fishery 4.1 Quota and Harvest Summary .............................................................................................. 81 4.2 Lake Whitefish Commercial Catch Sampling .................................................................... 92 4.3 Lake Herring Commercial Catch Sampling ....................................................................... 94 5. Age and Growth Summary .................................................................................................. 95 6. Contaminant Monitoring ..................................................................................................... 97 7. Stocking Program ................................................................................................................... 99 8. Biodiversity and Species Rehabilitation 8.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 110 8.2 Atlantic Salmon Restoration ............................................................................................ 110 8.3 American Eel Restoration ................................................................................................ 113 8.4 Deepwater Cisco Restoration ........................................................................................... 116 8.5 Lake Trout Restoration ..................................................................................................... 118 8.6 Round Whitefish Spawning Location Identification ........................................................ 121 9. Management Planning 9.1 Fisheries Management Zone 20 Council (FMZ20) .......................................................... 123 9.2 Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River Commercial Fishing Liaison Committee ............. 123 10. Research Activities 10.1 Linking Nearshore to Offshore Production in Lake Ontario .......................................... 124 10.2 Are 2013 Nearshore-offshore fish data comparable to longterm indexing data? ........... 125 10.3 Shocking results: A novel approach to estimating Round Goby density in Lake Ontario .................................................................................................................................... 127 10.4 Station 81: Long-term monitoring at the base of Lake Ontario’s food web ................... 128 10.5 Aquatic invasive species awareness in Ontario .............................................................. 129 10.6 Developing indicators of fish health ............................................................................... 131 10.7 Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network–Reducing uncertainty in management of AIS ..................................................................................................................................... 131 10.8 Using fish metabolic rate to predict success of invasive fish ......................................... 132 10.9 Community-level response following treatment with Zequanox© - a biocide for invasive zebra and quagga mussels ........................................................................................ 133 10.10 Predicting the consequences of Asian Carp establishment in the Great Lakes ............ 133 10.11 Water level impacts on muskrat house density in coastal wetlands ............................. 135 11. Partnerships 11.1 St. Lawrence River Seine Netting Survey and Muskellunge Nursery Site Identification ..................................................................................................................... 138 11.2 Coordinated Science and Monitoring Initiative .............................................................. 138 11.3 Bass Tagging in Eastern Lake Ontario and Bay of Quinte ............................................. 138 11.4 Walleye Spawn Collection ............................................................................................. 140 11.5 Salmon and Trout Spawning Runs on Bowmanville Creek ........................................... 142 12. Staff 2013 ................................................................................................................................ 143 13. Operational Field and Lab Schedule 2013 .............................................................. 145 14. Primary Publications 2013 ............................................................................................. 146 v Lake Ontario Fish Communities and Fisheries: 2013 Annual Report of the Lake Ontario Management Unit Foreword The Lake Ontario Management Unit (LOMU) is pleased to provide its Annual Report of assessment and management activities carried out during 2013. Lake Ontario fisheries are managed by MNR in partnership with New York State within the Lake Ontario Committee under the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Lake Ontario Fish Community Objectives provide bi-national fisheries management direction to protect and restore native species and to maintain sustainable fisheries. Our many partners include: New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and many other Ontario provincial ministries and conservation authorities and U.S. state and federal agencies and non-government partners. Lake Ontario, the Bay of Quinte, and the St. Lawrence River ecosystem has changed over the last two centuries in response to the pressures of industrial development, land settlement and agricultural practices, fishing, pollution, loss of native species, and the introduction of new species. Fisheries monitoring, assessment and research programs help understand these changes and support informed management decisions that consider the ecological realities that shape the fishery, such as the natural capacity of the lake to produce fish, the decline or recovery of native species, the impact of non-native species, changes to fish habitat and climate change, along with social and economic objectives. Management highlights from 2013 include the successful delivery of the Cooperative Science Monitoring Initiative with the US Environmental Protection Agency, USFWS,