Condition of resident fish communities in the Eighteenmile Creek Area of Concern, New York

Spotty distributions: Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) and Spotted Sucker (Minytrema melanops) range expansion in eastern Lake Erie

“…The new records reported here show that peripheral populations of L. oculatus have extended the eastern boundary of their range into New York waters. There have been previously published sightings of L. oculatus further northeast in Lake Ontario (Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman, 2000), including one recent record from New York (George et al, 2022a). However, it was unclear whether these records represented stray individuals or established populations.…”

“…Two fish species that are historically absent or rare in eastern Lake Erie are the Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) and the Spotted Sucker (Minytrema melanops). Both of these fishes are widespread throughout the southern and central United States (Page and Burr, 2011) but are sporadically distributed in the Great Lakes basin (Boothroyd et al, 2016;Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman, 2000;George et al, 2022a;Hubbs and Lagler, 2004;Trautman, 1981). Lepisosteus oculatus is a large (up to 80 cm) top-level piscivorous predator preferring clear vegetated waters, particularly in wetlands and floodplain habitat of lakes and large rivers (Hubbs and Lagler, 2004;Page and Burr, 2011;Snedden et al, 1999;Suttkus, 1963;Trautman, 1981;Walker et al, 2013), while young-of-year individuals prefer low turbidity, shallow, vegetated nearshore habitat (McAllister et al, 2022).…”