Robert C. Haas
Lake St. Clair Fisheries Research Station
Mt. Clemens, Michigan
Mary C Fabrizio
Institute for Fisheries Research
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thomas N. Todd
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
National Fisheries Research Center Great Lakes
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Abstract.-The harvest of
walleye by sport and commercial fisheries in lakes St. Clair and
Erie is under a cooperative management program involving several
states and two countries. In this report we present the results
of a long-term tag-recapture study as well as corroborative evidence
of stock discreteness from studies of population characteristics
such as growth and allelic frequencies of walleye in these waters.
Walleye were tagged in the spring from 1975-87 in lakes St. Clair
and Erie. Tag-recapture data indicate a general tendency for walleye
to move northward after tagging. Walleye tagged in Lake St. Clair
had higher recovery rates and lower survival rates than walleye
tagged in Lake Erie. A reward-tag study in Lake St. Clair provided
an estimate of a non-reporting rate of approximately 33% which
is comparable to rates in the literature for other species. Data
from the Ontario commercial (gill-net) fishery, Michigan Department
of Natural Resources trap-net surveys, and sport fisheries from
western Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair were analyzed with a
catch-at-age model which permitted estimation of population abundance
(12.2 to 34.5 million fish), fishing mortality rate (0.19 to 0.37),
and annual survival rate (0.57 to 0.68). It appears that exploitation
rates for the sport fishery in the western basin exceeded those
of the commercial fishery from 1978-82. In recent years (1983-87),
exploitation rates were comparable. Average abundance and catch
of walleye in the western basin were 12.2 and 3.4 million fish
in 1978-82; average abundance and catch in 1983-87 were 34.5 and
5.2 million fish. We found good agreement between the estimate
of the harvest from creel surveys and that from the catch-at-age
model for Lake Erie. Walleye abundance and harvest in Lake St.
Clair were 10% of the values for the western basin of Lake Erie.
Two discrete stocks were delineated by analysis of allelic frequencies
of samples from Lake eke St. Clair and Lake Erie spawning populations.
These two stocks are the western basin of Lake Erie and Lake St.
Clair stocks. No further subdivision of stocks was possible based
on the genetic analysis of 21 loci. These genetically different
stocks intermix in the northern waters of this system. Based on
a consideration of the results of the genetic analysis, catch-at-age
analysis, and tag-recapture study we recommend independent but
coordinated management of the walleye populations in Lake St.
Clair and Lake Erie.