Evidence of Cisco Spawning in Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario

Cisco Coregonus artedii are an important prey fish for many Great Lakes predators, including lake trout Salvelinus namaycush. Their numbers have declined drastically in the last century due to the impacts of invasive species such as sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus and alewife Alosa pseudoharangus, overfishing, and habitat degradation. Chaumont Bay, New York contains the last remaining spawning population of cisco in Lake Ontario. The three main objectives of the cisco restoration project in Chaumont Bay are 1) to evaluate the status of the remnant spawning population, 2) to identify the spawning location within the bay, and 3) to identify limitations to recruitment that may be adversely affecting the population. In November and December of 2013 we attempted to identify the spawning site in Chaumont Bay using radio telemetry. 25 fish were tagged with radio transmitters and tracked through the bay. Samples of the spawning population taken for artificial spawning were collected for aging and biometrics. Years with successful reproduction as evidenced by surviving adults will be correlated with winter and spring weather in those years. In the spring of 2014 we conducted larval surveys to confirm successful reproduction, quantify abundance and distribution patterns of larvae, and investigate larval feeding ecology.