Evidence of Lake Whitefish Spawning in the Detroit River: Implications for Habitat and Population Recovery

Spatial and temporal variation in distribution of larval lake whitefish in eastern Lake Ontario: Signs of recovery?

“…The observed production in Chaumont Bay might be an initial sign that conditions are improving for lake whitefish in Lake Ontario. Signs of lake whitefish recovery have recently been observed in other Great Lakes areas (Roseman et al 2007). However, even in this productive area, larval abundance has decreased and our wide-area survey indicates that Chaumont Bay is the last viable spawning area in New York waters of Lake Ontario.…”

Historical Loss and Current Rehabilitation of Shoreline Habitat along an Urban-Industrial River—Detroit River, Michigan, USA

“…This includes soft shoreline engineering projects, incidental habitat projects (i.e., adding habitat features to existing or planned navigational structures like harbor or marina walls, breakwaters, and piers [35]), and steel sheet piling or concrete breakwater replacement projects that utilize limestone rip-rap that provides some habitat features. It is acknowledged that rip-rap is not ideal from a habitat perspective, however, it is better than steel sheet piling and concrete breakwater because it does provide some habitat for fish and other organisms [18][19][20][21]. Between 1995 and 2016, 19 different shoreline habitat modification projects were completed, representing soft shoreline engineering, incidental habitat, or changing from steel sheet piling or concrete breakwater to some limestone rip-rap that provided some limited habitat features (Table 2; Figure 3).…”

“…However, other studies have shown that rip-rap does provide fish habitat with interstitial spaces for cover and food production, and habitats for other organisms [18,19]. Indeed, lake whitefish have been found to spawn on rip-rap in the Detroit River off Fighting Island [20]. Lake sturgeon have been found to spawn off rip-rap in Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin [21].…”

Use of main channel and two backwater habitats by larval fishes in the Detroit River

“…Recent investigations of fish habitat use in the Detroit River have revealed renewed spawning activity by several socially and ecologically important fishes including lake whitefish (Roseman et al, 2007(Roseman et al, , 2012, walleye and lake sturgeon (Caswell et al, 2004;Roseman et al, 2011). In addition, some nearshore areas of the Detroit River have been found to support diverse assemblages of native fishes (Hintz, 2001).…”