Age and Growth of a Native, Lightly Exploited Population of Coregonus clupeaformis (Lake Whitefish) in a Small Natural Lake in Maine

Daniel M. Weaver; Silas K. Ratten; Stephen M. Coghlan; Graham D. Sherwood; Joseph D. Zydlewski

doi:10.1656/045.025.0406

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1 November 2018 Age and Growth of a Native, Lightly Exploited Population of Coregonus clupeaformis (Lake Whitefish) in a Small Natural Lake in Maine

Daniel M. Weaver, Silas K. Ratten, Stephen M. Coghlan, Graham D. Sherwood, Joseph D. Zydlewski

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Northeastern Naturalist, 25(4):599-610 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1656/045.025.0406

Abstract

We assessed annual growth of Coregonus clupeaformis (Lake Whitefish) from a natural, lightly exploited population in a small lake in northern Maine using observed and back-calculated length-at-age data. We sampled Lake Whitefish from Clear Lake, ME, with gill nets and extracted otoliths from 57 fish. We incorporated age-at-length data into a von Bertalanffy growth function, which we employed to model growth trajectories from individual fish. We used these estimates to evaluate length-at-age variability within this population. Ages for Lake Whitefish varied from 8 y to 30 y. Among all fish, we characterized incremental growth by an average-growth coefficient of K = 0.156 and an estimated L∞ of 484 mm. The oldest individuals demonstrated the slowest incremental growth (K = 0.106) when compared to younger cohorts (K = 0.218). We observed an inverse relationship between L∞ and K and the estimated age-at-capture (R2 = 0.178 and 0.723, respectively), which suggests relatively slow growth and a smaller maximum size for the longest living members of the population. Our estimated parameters serve as a reference to inform management of populations of Lake Whitefish.

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Daniel M. Weaver, Silas K. Ratten, Stephen M. Coghlan, Graham D. Sherwood, and Joseph D. Zydlewski "Age and Growth of a Native, Lightly Exploited Population of Coregonus clupeaformis (Lake Whitefish) in a Small Natural Lake in Maine," Northeastern Naturalist 25(4), 599-610, (1 November 2018). https://doi.org/10.1656/045.025.0406

Published: 1 November 2018

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