Diets of YOY St. Lawrence Muskellunge

A fellow muskie researcher, Kevin Kapuscinski, at the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry has characterized the diets of YOY muskies in the St. Lawrence River. Click the link below (great URL for the blog) to see what these little tikes are munching on. Banded killifish would not have been one of my guesses!

http://masquinongy.wordpress.com/

Dr. John Farrell of SUNY - ESF runs the 1,000 Islands Biological Station on the St. Lawrence River. Some of the most important research on St. Lawrence muskies have come from Dr. Farrell, his lab, and the 1,000 IBS. I would love to see the station some time; what a setting to carry out your research on! Take a look at the station's website (1,000 Island Biological Station) and peruse the photo gallery for really cool fisheries research photos, including the giant muskie captured below.

Good News

The catch-and-release manuscript has been accepted for publication pending revisions. Favorable reviews with legitimate comments/edits. Cool beans!

Update: Walters and Musky Hunter

Long time, no post. Not much to report these days. Lots of data analysis, re-analysis, hair pulling, and re-re-analysis. A few days ago I left to help with a walleye telemetry project in Lake Erie/Lake Huron. We're tagging some great big Walters (walleye) on the Maumee River and (soon) the Tittabawassee. These are part of my duties as a research assistant. I consider myself pretty darn lucky!

Dr. Karen Murchie making a small incision to insert an acoustic transmitter. This fish will enable researchers to determine the movements of Lake Erie/Huron walleye: project description.

In other news, if you can get your hands on the newest issue of Musky Hunter (April/May) you'll see an article on Ottawa River muskies with a bit at the end of the article on my research. I'm looking forward to working with Musky Hunter in the future to disseminate our findings.

Hold Your Horses

As some of you know, this blog details the trials and tribulations of research. Sometimes, you mess up. I'm by no means a math genius and don't consider myself an expert statistical software user. I learn as I go, through trial-and-error and a lot of consulation and independent research. In reviewing the procedures I used to run the stats on my data, it appears I was doing it incorrectly. You have learn to speak the language of the software and apparently I was mumbling because there seems to be a miscommunication. One of the things I was super excited about turns out to not be statistically significant. The data is still interesting and there's still a story, but the "wow" factor may have just been knocked down a notch.

Keep on keepin' on.

For all my fellow anglers out there, I think you will find the results of the telemetry data analysis quite interesting. Some of it may confirm what you've observed for some time, some of it may surprise you. Currently, we're looking at how time of day (dawn, day, dusk, night), lunar quarter for both waning and waxing periods (eight total quarters), and temperature affect activity and depth. Time permitting we may explore other variables, but for now that's all we will examine.

Who knew data could be this fun to analyze!

Muskies Canada Board-of-Director's Meeting

I had the honor of speaking at the Muskies Canada board-of-directors meeting yesterday. The presentation was actually one of the hardest I have ever had to create because little else is needed to complete the project at this point, aside from sitting my butt down in front of my computer and writing. However, it forced me to think (always a good thing) about issues that I will need to communicate when I defend my thesis. [A big thank you to my girlfriend for giving me direction on the contents of the presentation. THANKS, SARAH!]

Perhaps the biggest message to be gained from this project is that our research supports the notion that anglers CAN pursue catch-and-release fishing responsibly. It is our task as anglers to promote the well-being of released fish. Those that oppose catch-and-release fishing feel that the endeavor cannot be done responsibly and that too much detriment is done to the fish. This study shows that groups of anglers have the ability to create handling procedures that minimize physiological and behavioural disturbances and maximize post-release survival. Although these procedures work for muskies, other procedures may be better for different species and species-specific guidelines should be developed. I know there are many readers here from Europe, the States, and elsewhere across our planet that pursue other species. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to develop handling procedures that maximize survival and minimize other sub-lethal impacts!


I am pleased to deliver this message to scientists around the world both in print and verbally when this case study will be put on the "world stage" at the World Recreational Fishing Conference held this coming summer in Berlin. Some of the brightest minds involved in recreational fishing science will be in attendance at this conference (e.g., Zeb Hogan of National Geographic). Many congratulations should be extended to the specialized muskie angling community for developing and modifying handling practices over the years with no agency involvement and little science-based influence. You all have been ahead of your times!

OK, I'm done reflecting on the weekend. I felt like this was worthy of sharing to others that weren't in attendance at the meeting.

Also, big congrats to my friend, field assistant, and co-author, Hedrik Wachelka, for the distinguished service award he was given this weekend as well as the new conservation award founded in his name (effective from here forth!).

Submitted!

I can now mark a big, fat CHECK on my to-do list. The catch-and-release paper has been submitted to Fisheries Research.

Now we wait and hear back from an editor and at least two referees. The fate of this paper now rests in the hands of these anonymous peer-reviewers (actually, first it's at the mercy of the editor then the reviewers).

OK, on to the next task!