The early life history and ecology of Columbia Lake burbot ...

This thesis examines aspects of the early life history and ecology of the Columbia Lake burbot population in southeast British Columbia. Growth was examined using otoliths from burbot sampled in shoreline habitats, a recreational ice fishery, and the spawning population. Columbia Lake burbot begin t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Taylor, Joshua L.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0099526
https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0099526
Description
Summary:This thesis examines aspects of the early life history and ecology of the Columbia Lake burbot population in southeast British Columbia. Growth was examined using otoliths from burbot sampled in shoreline habitats, a recreational ice fishery, and the spawning population. Columbia Lake burbot begin to recruit to the fishery, and no longer inhabit shoreline habitats, by age 2 or 3 (39 cm in length). The mean density of age 0 burbot per km of shoreline on 12 sites sampled from 1997 to 1999 ranged from 400 in 1997 to 62 in 1999. This suggests that recruitment is not seriously depressed and, thus, the decline in the burbot population may be best explained by changes in environment that affect post settlement life stages. Recruitment, as estimated by shoreline surveys of juvenile abundance and the age distribution of adults in the fishery and spawning population, varied greatly among cohorts. This variation is not well explained by spawner numbers and, presumably, is partly driven by environmental fluctuations. ...