Neil H. Ringler

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Ecology Restoration of Perturbed Aquatic
Ecosystems

• Neil H. Ringler
• SUNY College of Environmental Science Forestry
• Syracuse, NY

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Perturbed
British Columbia
Michigan
71-75
85
67-69
New York
75-05
California
60s
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Salmon Restoration
Lake Ontario, USA
Salmo salar
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Salmo salar means leaper, but could not climb
Niagara Falls...
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Dwight Webster 1982

• Lake Ontario represented the most striking
  worldwide example of freshwater colonization by
  Atlantic salmon.

• Lived w/ brook char

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47 streams
Salmon River
Finger Lakes Region
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What happened?
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Logging - Deforestation
Sedimentation
89 of historical tributaries dammed
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Post-Glacial History

• 5000 yr Native Americans
• 1654 good fishing
• 1810 Salmon numbers decline
• 1819 Champlain-Hudson canal completed
• 1819-1882 10 more canals built

Erie canal built as transport system
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• (1870s Railroads out-compete canals)

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Over fishing
1870s salmon rare 1898 Last catch of native
stock STOCKING US Canada 1873-1902 migratory
strains 1878-1917 landlocked strains
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Accidental Introductions
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...Exotics as prey
Alewife Alosa pseudoharengus
Rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax
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Thiaminase- enzyme from exotic diet

• Early Mortality Syndrome
• Possibly contributed to decline in 1800s
• 99 of fry lost in hatchery today
• Limits reproduction of returning adults

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Exotic parasite collapse of lake trout 1950s
(Atlantic salmon long gone)
Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
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(2005) Still treating streams annually to remove
lamprey(Lampricide TFM)
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Deliberate Introductions

• gt 1980 Hatchery rears exotics Oncorhynchus spp.
  (Chinook salmon, Coho salmon)
• Salmo trutta (brown trout)
• Many introduced fish spawn in the streams

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Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
Chinook salmon
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Decomposing carcass adds nutrients
Spawning success
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Electroshocker captures juveniles
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Prey
Predator
Rainbow trout
Exotics eat each other
O. mykiss- Exotic competitor to future Atlantic
salmon
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Native
Exotic
Exotic
Exotic
Exotic
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Juvenile Chinook (2004)

• Area of the Salmon River 1,290,000 m 2
• Seine haul 90 m 2
• Density scenarios fish/m2 total
• 20 fish per haul 0.22 283,000
• 200 fish per haul 2.2 2,838,000
• 1100 fish per haul 12.2 15,700,000

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Adult Chinook (2004)
Source Total Bounds

• Hatchery Harvest 10,149 (/- 0)
• Angler Harvest 24,696 (/- 2,352)
• Carcass Count 12,943 (/- 2,071)

• Total 47,788 (/- 4,423)

• Hydroacoustics 43,120 (42,402, 43,838)
• Other error? (/-4,312)
• Days not counted? (/- 2150)
• Total 48, 582 /- 15 ?

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High quality water Exists today.
31 streams
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Atlantic Salmon Restoration . stocking of fry
Salmon R.
Fish Cr.
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Problems in addition to fish competitors

• Some anglers
• prefer
• Pacific salmon!

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Cormorants eat salmon
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Thiaminase greatest problem (Searching for
resistance no Great Lakes strains!)
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Restoration of nearby Onondaga Lake, NY