Understanding Commercial Harvest Impacts on White Suckers in Maine

The state of Maine harvests white suckers, Catostomus commersonii, to provide lobster bait for coastal communities in early spring. The white sucker fishery is unregulated and has increased over the last decade. There is a concern that fishing may impact the age structure and reproductive traits of harvested stocks. In this study, 976 spawning suckers were collected from 6 lakes (three open to commercial harvest, three closed to commercial harvest). Length, mass, sex, and gonad mass were measured for every individual caught. Otoliths were extracted for age and growth estimations.  Ovaries were removed from females to calculate gonadosomatic indices and estimate fecundity. These data will be used to compare lakes open and closed to harvest to infer white sucker sensitivity to commercial harvesting.