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Utilization of Alewives by Inshore Piscivorous Fishes in Lake Michigan
Author(s) -
Wagner Wilbert C.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1972)101<55:uoabip>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - stizostedion , alewife , perch , esox , pike , fishery , predation , smelt , micropterus , biology , bay , forage fish , piscivore , bass (fish) , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , predator , geography , archaeology
The exotic alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) has become exceedingly abundant in Lake Michigan. During May‐August, they migrate to inshore waters to spawn and may provide an abundant food supply for the inshore warm‐water piscivorous fishes. I examined stomach contents of 405 northern pike (Esox lucius), 112 smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui), 103 walleye (Stizostedion vitreum vitreum), 43 burbot (Lota lota) and 29 bowfin (Amia calva) from Little Bay de Noc in Lake Michigan, during April‐October of 1966–68 to determine their food habits when alewives were abundant and when alewives were scarce. Before alewives arrived in the spring, rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) were the most important prey species in the diets. When alewives were abundant, they provided large percentages of the total weight of foods eaten: northern pike—66%, smallmouth bass—60%, walleye—71%, burbot—100% and bowfin—100%. After most alewives left in the fall, no single prey species predominated in the diets. Northern pike grew faster in Little Bay de Noc than in other waters, probably because they fed heavily on alewives and smelt. Northern pike and walleyes did not prey on the abundant yellow perch (Perca flavescens), a species upon which they normally feed, strongly suggesting that perch were buffered from these predators by the abundant alewives and smelt.