Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: New York
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

New York Project


Lake Ontario salmonid management risk assessment: refinement of predator-prey models

August 2017 - December 2022


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation
  • NY Department of Environmental Conservation

Lake Ontario supports a thriving Chinook Salmon fishery. Sustainable management of this resource requires maintaining a balance between predator numbers and the primary Chinook Salmon prey item, alewife. In this collaborative project spanning NY State, U.S. Federal, and Canadian partners, we are developing state of the art stock assessment tools to inform management decisions for Lake Ontario Chinook Salmon management. By combining stock assessments for predators (Chinook Salmon) and prey (alewife), we hope to develop a decision support tool that can lead to robust ecosystem level management decisions for fisheries in Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes more broadly.