Fish and aquatic community monitoring in Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior

Joshua Schloesser, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ashland, WI
Presentation at the Chequamegon Bay Research Symposium, April 14, 2015

Transcript

1. Fish and Aquatic Community Monitoring in Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior Joshua Schloesser U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office Chequamegon Bay Research Symposium April 2015
2. Sampling Design • Rare species = intensive effort / isolated distribution Common species Few samples Rare species Many samples • Which species arrives next? • Use native/non-native community to quantify effort for rare species Maximize number of species detected!
3. Adult and Juvenile Fish 2009-2012 2013-2014
4. Adult and Juvenile Fish
5. What qualifies as success (early detection)? • 95% or 100%? • 5, 3, or 1 years? • What does no new detections mean? Need High Certainty in Sampling! Balance Effort and Risk!
6. Larval Fish 2014 June 23: 13 samples/gear July 14: 12 samples/gear
7. Larval Fish 2014 • Spatial and temporal coverage • Processing: taxonomy and NextGen U.S. EPA
8. Invertebrates 2014 • Sweep nets: 25 Processing: Badger Technical Services • Mini-ponar grabs: 25 • Amphipod traps: 40
9. Marina Monitoring 2010-2014 Hester-Dendy samples: 3,452 nights Vessel hull inspections: 2,773
10. Continued Monitoring • Prioritize monitoring areas around Lake Superior • Coordination among partnering agencies on Superior (Great Lakes) could expand and increase our Lake- wide ability to monitor aquatic communities ? ? ? ? ?
11. Acknowledgements EPA MED: Joel Hoffman, Anett Trebitz, Greg Peterson, Jack Kelly USFWS Ashland: Henry Quinlan, Gary Czypinski Ashland High School: Ron Nemec, Uta Kamantauskas, and students
12. Questions?