Ground Truth and Site Assessment of Model Predicted Fish Spawning Habitat Areas in the St. Clair – Detroit Waterway

Large scale spatial modeling of  potential fish spawning habitat areas in the St. Clair – Detroit Rivers for a select guild of migratory, benthic, lithophilic fish species including Lake sturgeon, Walleye and Lake whitefish was completed in 2011. Based on these predictions, work will commence in summer 2012 using side-scan sonar and underwater video to map and classify river bottom substrates, ground truth model outputs, and further asses the physical properties and biologic activity at a select group of sites in the system. The goals of this effort are validating model results, quantifying the physical properties present at the sites and assessing use by spawning fish. This information will then be used to select suitable sites for construction of fish spawning reefs via the addition of suitable rock – rubble spawning substrates. In this poster we present the model predicted sites, details of the planned sampling regimen and comparison of select sites to previous areas where successful fish spawning habitat has been constructed in these river systems.