Movement and Space Use of Grass Carp in the Sandusky River, Ohio: Implications for Lake Erie Eradication Efforts

Abstract

The Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella is an invasive species to the Laurentian Great Lakes that was first detected in the 1980s. The western basin of Lake Erie is the putative invasion front for the Great Lakes, with spawning known to occur in two of the basin's tributaries (Sandusky and Maumee rivers). Targeted removal is being used to reduce Grass Carp abundance, with an ultimate aim of eradication in part to prevent spread and establishment in the other Great Lakes; response efforts are being concentrated in the Sandusky River due to its heavy use by Grass Carp and because it is the tributary where spawning occurs consistently. The goal of this research was to identify areas in the Sandusky River where Grass Carp aggregate and identify variables that influence movement to improve efficiency of response efforts. Movement and space use of 27 Grass Carp were monitored using acoustic telemetry. Detection data were used to estimate movement and daily detection rates and

Using Surrogate Taxa to Inform Response Methods for Invasive Grass Carp in the Laurentian Great Lakes

“…However, Grass Carp foraging activity changes with water temperature, peaking at 20-26°C (Edwards 1974;Shireman and Smith 1983). Additionally, habitat use in a Lake Erie tributary changes seasonally (Harris et al 2021a). Therefore, it is plausible that water temperature would also influence detection probabilities for Grass Carp.…”

“…Because Grass Carp spawn in high-velocity reaches and spawning runs are associated with high-discharge events (Shireman and Smith 1983), the combo method may be less effective for sampling individuals during spawning conditions when high water velocities make it difficult and potentially unsafe to deploy trammel nets. Previous recommendations were to use passive sampling gear (e.g., gill nets and hoop nets) to intercept Grass Carp as they are migrating to spawning grounds (Harris et al 2021a). Placing our results in the context of previous movement studies and response efforts, Grass Carp response efforts could be tailored by discharge and water temperature (Kočovský et al 2021), with the combo method being the preferred method and electrofishing being the secondary approach when conditions prevent the use of trammel nets.…”

“…Conducting response efforts strategically could provide opportunities to test our prediction that the combo method is more effective for detecting and capturing Grass Carp than solely boat electrofishing. Passive acoustic telemetry arrays have provided insight into Grass Carp movements and space use (Harris et al 2021a(Harris et al , 2021b, allowing future comparisons to target areas and times of year where Grass Carp use is high, leading to denser data sets. Additionally, positional acoustic telemetry arrays that provide high-resolution data on Grass Carp movement and space use could be used to assess overlap in habitat use (and thus availability to sampling) between Grass Carp and the surrogate species.…”

Movement ecology of diploid and triploid grass carp in a large reservoir and upstream tributaries

“…Tracking effort during this portion of the study spanned > 60 rkm, not including off-channel habitat and other tributaries we encountered. Because of the expansive study area, we deployed passive acoustic receivers (VR2; Innovasea, Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada) throughout the arms of the lake we believed might be conducive to spawning based on previous research [21,39], or which were of adequate length and turbulence for egg development. We deployed 9 passive acoustic receivers from March-August 2018 on the Osage, South Grand, and Tebo arms (Fig 1).…”

Listening with the invasive fish ear: applications and innovations of otolith chemistry analysis in invasive fish biology

“…the opportunity to track tagged, gregarious species to facilitate the removal of aggregated fish (Judas fish; Bajer et al 2011;Harris et al 2020), and, more recently, detection of environmental DNA (eDNA) has opened the way to extensive and rapid detection programs (Jerde et al 2011). Of the numerous growing technologies, however, the use of fish hard part (e.g.…”