Contact: 

Stacy Furgal, New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Fisheries Specialist, E: slf85@cornell.edu, P: (315) 882-6227

Oswego, NY, July 24, 2024 - Attention Lake Ontario Anglers: Where oh where do the lake trout go? As detailed in the NYSG poster "Lake Ontario Trout Tagging Study" (pdf), scientists are studying lake trout movements in Lake Ontario using special acoustic tags. These tags are placed inside the fish and use sound to communicate to a network of receivers on the lake bottom that listen for tagged fish.

Over 300 lake trout were tagged in 2023, with plans underway to tag even more in 2024. Information collected will be used to understand where fish are going throughout the year, especially in the fall when lake trout spawn.

If you harvest a tagged lake trout, please keep the tag and contact Dimitry Gorsky (dimitry_gorsky@fws.gov | 585-948-7045) to report the tag information. Acoustically tagged lake trout in this project also have a small external tag placed near the dorsal fin. Anglers can report those external tag numbers the same way.

This project is made possible by the bi-national efforts of many partners, including: United States Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, New York Sea Grant, and many others. Funding came from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) as part of the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI).

Implementing a New Genetic Approach

Parentage based tagging is a new genetic technique being used to identify hatchery and wild-origin Chinook salmon in Lake Ontario, as detailed in the New York Sea Grant poster, "Identifying Hatchery & Wild Origin Fish With Parentage Based Tagging" (pdf).

Understanding the proportion of hatchery and wild fish that make up a population is extremely important for fisheries managers. This information is used to keep the amount of predators in the lake, like trout and salmon, in balance with the amount of prey that is available for them to eat. This new genetic-based technique is more cost effective, quicker, and more accurate than previous methods used to estimate the total number of Chinook salmon in Lake Ontario.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

Established in 1966, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Sea Grant College Program promotes the informed stewardship of coastal resources in 34 joint federal/state university-based programs in every U.S. coastal state (marine and Great Lakes) and Puerto Rico. The Sea Grant model has also inspired similar projects in the Pacific region, Korea and Indonesia.

Since 1971, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

NYSG historically leverages on average a 3 to 6-fold return on each invested federal dollar, annually. We benefit from this, as these resources are invested in Sea Grant staff and their work in communities right here in New York.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

New York Sea Grant, one of the largest of the state Sea Grant programs, is a cooperative program of the State University of New York (SUNY) and Cornell University. The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Oswego, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark, and in Watertown. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, in Queens, at Brooklyn College, with Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC, in Bronx, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County in Kingston, and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County in Elmsford.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org, follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and YouTube). NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which it publishes 2-3 times a year.