Great Lakes Fishery Commission

Yellow Perch [Perca flavescens] is an important part of Lake Erie\\\'s ecosystem and regional economy. Understanding spatial ecology of economically and ecologically important species is critical for developing and communicating management practices. Following a West Basin pilot project supported by the Lake Erie Committee (LEC), LEC agencies expressed interest in a large-scale multi-year Yellow Perch telemetry study. The existing pilot project quantifies post-release and annual survival of fish implanted with acoustic tags as well as average detection rates and quantity/quality of data returned per fish in shallow West Basin habitats. However, foraging environment, hypoxic condition, habitat depth, receiver density, and ambient sound vary across Lake Erie\\\'s basins. We hypothesize that post-release and annual survival may decrease in deeper water habitats (e.g., Central and East basins) in part due to barotrauma experienced during capture and an altered foraging/predatory environment. Also, we expect lower detection rates in deeper habitats as the existing Central Basin GLATOS receiver array is sparser. As such, unique study designs may be required if short- and long-term survival or data quality/quantity vary with depth across basins.

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