BIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS Of LAKE HURON BURBOT


John G. Westenbarger
School of Sciences and Natural Resources
Lake Superior State University
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783


Burbot (Lota lota) are important cold water predators within the Great Lakes. They
exhibit many ecological similarities to lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) including diet
and niche overlaps. While extensive biological data has been collected and examined for
lake trout in order to aid in their recovery, very little effort had been put forth for burbot.
The goal of my study was to examine age specific growth and mortality data of Lake
Huron burbot. This examination was to determine community structure, length at age
and condition at age. Seventy six (n=76) fish were gill netted at five locations along the
western shore of Lake Huron. Otoliths were used to age the fish because the scales of
burbot are embedded within the skin, and they have soft dorsal rays. Posterior halves of
saggital otoliths were mounted on glass microscope slides using thermal plastic cement
and were hand sanded using wet silicon carbide sandpaper or a dremel tool, jig, and
various bits. Finished otoliths were aged using a video-microscope and a double blind
technique. Hand sanding produced precise grinds while the dremel tool broke pieces of
the otoliths or smeared annuli together. The collected burbot ranged in ages from 3 to 13
vears old. Analysis by a Kolmogorov Smirnov test revealed that the age data was
normally distributed. Condition at age data and length at age data were analyzed using a
single factor A-NOVA test. The test revealed there was a significance difference for
condition at age (a =.05), and there was a significance difference for length at age1 (a
=.05).


Selected References

Fisher,	S.J., D.W. Willis, and K.L. Pope. 1996. An assessment of burbot (Lota lota)
weight -length data from North Amencan populations. Canadian Journal of
Zoology. 74:570-575.

Scott, W.B., and E.J. Crossman. 1973. Freshwater Fishes ofCanada. Fisheries Research
Board of Canada. , Bulletin Number 184. 966 pp.

Secor,	D.H., J.H. Dean, and Steven E. Campana. 1995. Recent Developments in Fish
Otolith Research. BelleW. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal
Research. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina. 735 pp.


l	The author would like reader to note this correction.