Dynamics of a Yellow Perch Population in Western Lake Superior

Abstract

Yellow perch Perca flavescens were sampled annually in 1973-1988 with bottom trawls in Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior. Biomass averaged 1.6 kg/hectare. Fish 1-3 years old made up 64% of the biomass, whereas fish of harvestable size (>4 years old) made up only 31% of the biomass. Year-class strength was variable among years, but a Ricker recruitment function described the relation between year-class strength and parental stock size. Age-specific mortality increased substantially as fish became sexually mature at age 4, perhaps as a result of energy depletion associated with high reproductive and maintenance costs in a suboptimal thermal environment. Yield-per-recruit analysis indicated that most of the age-specific annual mortality was due to natural causes. Natural mortality, rather than limited recruitment or fishing mortality, was the major factor controlling harvestable stock size. Regardless of the size of a year-class produced, natural mortality greatly reduced its abundance prior to maturity and recruitment to the fishable stock. This high mortality, combined with very slow growth, limits the biomass potential of the harvestable stock, and sustainable yields from this population are therefore low.

Abiotic and biotic correlates of yellow perch recruitment to age‐2 in southern Lake Michigan, 1984–2007

“…The results of this study were concordant with others (e.g. Bronte et al. 1993) and showed that the single best predictor of natural yellow perch recruitment in southern Lake Michigan was yellow perch spawning stock size.…”

“…The results of this study were concordant with others (e.g. Bronte et al 1993) and showed that the single best predictor of natural yellow perch recruitment in southern Lake Michigan was yellow perch spawning stock size. This study further showed that yellow perch recruitment response is non-linear with respect to spawning stock abundance, whereby recruit-ment increases with the spawning stock until a threshold is crossed, and then recruitment declines with continued increases in stock because of densitydependent factors (e.g.…”

Evaluating alternative harvest policies for yellow perch in southern Lake Michigan

“…(T.3.1)). Yellow perch recruitment is often described by a Ricker stock-recruitment function (e.g., Bronte et al, 1993). We included a separate recruitment model for the area-specific (Eq.…”

Population genetic diversity and phylogeographic divergence patterns of the yellow perch (Perca flavescens)

“…The yellow perch Perca flavescens (Percidae: Teleostei) is a key North American sport and commercial fish whose populations have fluctuated over the past several decades due to unstable recruitment patterns and exploitation (Marsden and Robillard, 2004;Bronte et al, 1993). Its abundance and native distribution center in the lower Great Lakes region (Scott and Crossman, 1973), whose populations originated ∼ 13,000 years ago (ya) from 2 primary glacial refugia (Bailey and Smith, 1981;Crossman and McAllister, 1986;Todd and Hatcher, 1993).…”