Mountain Whitefish Overwintering Habitat Use in the McLeod River Mountain Whitefish Overwintering Habitat Use in the McLeod River Brittany Schmidt, Kevin Fitzsimmons, and Andrew Paul Alberta Conservation Association 101 – 9 Chippewa Road Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada T8A 6J7 Report Editors PETER AKU GLENDA SAMUELSON Alberta Conservation Association R.R. #2 101 – 9 Chippewa Rd. Craven, SK S0G 0W0 Sherwood Park, AB T8A 6J7 Conservation Report Series Type Data ISBN: 978-1-989448-04-5 Reproduction and Availability: This report and its contents may be reproduced in whole, or in part, provided that this title page is included with such reproduction and/or appropriate acknowledgements are provided to the authors and sponsors of this project. Suggested Citation: Schmidt, B., K. Fitzsimmons, and A. Paul. 2019. Mountain whitefish overwintering habitat use in the McLeod River. Data Report produced by Alberta Conservation Association, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. 19 pp + App. Cover photo credit: David Fairless Digital copies of conservation reports can be obtained from: Alberta Conservation Association 101 – 9 Chippewa Rd. Sherwood Park, AB T8A 6J7 Toll Free: 1-877-969-9091 Tel: (780) 410-1998 Fax: (780) 464-0990 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ab-conservation.com Alberta Innovates and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Alberta make no warranty, express or implied, nor assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information contained in this publication, nor for any use thereof that infringes on privately owned rights. The views and opinions of the author expressed herein do not reflect those of Alberta Innovates or Her Majesty the Queen in right of Alberta. The directors, officers, employees, agents and consultants of Alberta Innovates and the Government of Alberta are exempted, excluded and absolved from all liability for damage or injury, howsoever caused, to any person in connection with or arising out of the use by that person for any purpose of this publication or its contents. i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As demand continues to grow for industrial, agricultural, and domestic water use, Albertans are seeking strategies to manage water needs into the future. One of the primary tasks in water management is determining the instream flow needs of an ecosystem so that managers can seek to meet socio-economic needs, while maintaining the ecological integrity of a watershed. In 2014-15, Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) determined overwintering areas and microhabitat characteristics for mountain whitefish (MNWH) in the Wapiti River and developed a resource selection function (RSF) model to predict winter instream flow needs. Mountain whitefish were selected as a species of focus due to their tendency to occupy areas of faster moving water, which could make them more sensitive to changes in flow. The resulting RSF model showed MNWH were sensitive to water withdrawals during low winter flows. Alberta Conservation Association (ACA), in collaboration with AEP, developed the current project to validate the results from the Wapiti River. We conducted a telemetry survey on the McLeod River, where we tagged and tracked MNWH throughout the winter of 2017-18 to determine overwintering habitat. We collected under-ice habitat data at tagged fish locations, as well as at additional sites available to fish within the study area. We used this data to develop an RSF model to determine if MNWH overwintering habitat in the McLeod River could be predicted by a set of parameters. Results from our telemetry survey indicate that fish movement varied from 9 km upstream to 89 km downstream of initial tagging locations, with fish travelling greater distances from September to November than from November to March as they moved into overwintering habitat. Our RSF model found MNWH habitat use to be predicted by depth and dominant substrate, with fish showing preference for shallower habitats with larger particle sized substrate. Our data provides valuable information with regards to under-ice movement and overwintering habitat preference for MNWH and can be used in future management decisions with regards to winter instream flow needs. Key words: Mountain whitefish, McLeod River, instream flow needs, IFN, resource selection function, RSF ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was funded by Alberta Innovates – Water Innovation Program and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We thank Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) employees Scott Seward, Mike Ranger, Nikita Lebedynski, Zach Spence, Jon Van Dyk, Troy Furukawa, and Brendan Ganton for their assistance in project development and data collection. We received valuable project support from Lauren Makowecki (Alberta Environment and Parks) and Dallas Johnson (Alberta Innovates). Thank you to the Stone Family who welcomed us into their cabin where we were able to test our telemetry equipment. Thanks to Dave Martell (Millar Western Forest Products Ltd. Whitecourt Pump Division) for granting us river access to our fixed receiver. We also thank the numerous landowners who provided access to the McLeod River through their properties. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................................vii 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 2.0 STUDY AREA ................................................................................................................................... 2 3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS ...................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Fish tagging ................................................................................................................................... 4 3.2 Telemetry and habitat use survey .............................................................................................. 4 3.3 Habitat availability survey .......................................................................................................... 6 3.4 Resource selection function modelling ..................................................................................... 8 4.0 RESULTS ............................................................................................................................................ 8 4.1 Tag detection and fish movement .............................................................................................. 8 4.2 Habitat use and availability ...................................................................................................... 12 4.3 Resource selection function models ......................................................................................... 13 5.0 SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 17 6.0 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................................... 18 7.0 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................. 20 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. McLeod River study area including initial fish tagging locations. Inset map shows location of the study area within the province of Alberta. ............................. 3 Figure 2. McLeod River study area divided into mesohabitat types determined via aerial survey. ................................................................................................................................ 7 Figure 3. Locations of tagged mountain whitefish along the McLeod River during aerial survey, March 2018. ....................................................................................................... 10 Figure 4. Maximum distance (km) travelled by mountain whitefish in the McLeod River between aerial surveys from September 2017 to March 2018. ................................. 11 Figure 5. Distance travelled (km) by mountain whitefish in the McLeod River reported by month. .............................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 6. Summary of dominant substrate type at habitat use and available habitat sites for mountain whitefish in the McLeod River, 2018. ........................................................ 12 Figure 7. Relative probability of mountain whitefish use by depth in the McLeod River, 2018, as predicted using the top model including depth and substrate as covariates. Grey points are preference points from observed data. ........................ 16 Figure 8. Relative probability of mountain