Monitoring Habitat Use of Lake Sturgeon in Lakes Erie and Ontario Using Pop-Off Archival Satellite Tags

Little is known about Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens movement and habitat use in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Pop-off archival satellite tags (PSATs) allow the ability to record habitat variables, movement, and location throughout the tag’s deployment. Because Lake Sturgeon are highly mobile, PSATs are ideal to monitor movement and habitat use over time. The objective of this study was to characterize movement of adult Lake Sturgeon in response to time and habitat variables during and after spawning. PSATs were attached to 23 Lake Sturgeon in Buffalo Harbor, Lake Erie and 22 Lake Sturgeon in the lower Niagara River, Lake Ontario during spring, 2014. PSATs measured depth, temperature, activity (indexed by an accelerometer), and location until the tag released from the fish. After release, tags floated to the surface and communicated their data via satellite or were recovered and their data downloaded directly. Minimum distance traveled was estimated using the difference between the fish’s release location and the tag’s estimated pop-up location. Habitat use was evaluated on daily time intervals. We analyzed variation in tag acceleration across depth, temperature, and time to infer activity patterns. Our results show patterns in the variation of Lake Sturgeon activity across environmental covariates.