Meeting Abstract
Globally, sturgeon species are in severe decline as a result of habitat destruction, overfishing, and other impacts. Lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, is no exception; however, it is showing signs of recovery and is currently likely the most abundant North American species. As the largest fish and only species of sturgeon native to the Great Lakes basin, lake sturgeon rehabilitation is a pressing regional issue. Hatchery supplementation of the Great Lakes population has become a critical element of the population restoration plan. A key part of the supplementation process is the release of the juvenile sturgeon into streams that support survival and growth. There has been little research on the habitat (substrate) preferences or behavior in the presence of another species for hatchery-reared lake sturgeon . We conducted 12 h substrate preference tests in an artificial stream (two replicate sections) with sand, gravel, and rock substrates under 12:12 LL:DD photoperiod at approximately 12°C with low (four), medium (six), and high (eight) sturgeon densities. We then tested to see if these basic preferences were altered by the addition of one, two, or three brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) to the streams. We observed that juvenile lake sturgeon have a strong preference for the sand substrate and that this preference does not appear to be changed in the presence of brook trout.
