Cooperative Agreement issued to Partner of the Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU Partner for research project to study survival, movements, and habitat use of Grass Carp in the Great Lakes with emphasis on Lake Erie. Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) have been identified by a binational Ecological Risk Assessment as a threat to Lake Erie fisheries and the Great Lakes ecosystem in general. Invasion of the species has been confirmed via capture of reproductively capable fish and the presence of eggs and larvae in tributaries of Lake Erie. An assessment of the potential socio-economic impacts of Grass Carp becoming established in the Great Lakes estimated that losses could exceed $2 billion over the next decade. Thus, fishery management authorities, working through A Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries (Joint Strategic Plan or JSP), have utilized a structured decision-making (SDM) process to establish objectives for research needed to support eradication and control actions. Through US Congressional action funding has been supplied to USGS for Grass Carp research in support of JSP objectives. In addition to monitoring of early life history stages of Grass Carp, JSP partners have identified acoustic telemetry to understand migration and habitat use as priority information to inform management actions. Specifically, managers wish to leverage the existing Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS) by expanding coverage into nearshore and tributary environments to better understand survival of tagged fish, migration corridors, and habitats of Grass Carp that are currently not well monitored in the existing GLATOS network. The USGS research program seeks to address these critical objectives and provide scientific information needed by state and federal natural resource managers to develop tools for reducing or eliminating Grass Carp. This project will collaboratively support the expansion of the GLATOS system into nearshore and tributary habitats by providing fieldwork support as well as timely quantitative analysis telemetry data as decision support for managers. 2. Objectives: Specific objectives include: Support the expansion of the GLATOS acoustic telemetry network via establishment of new monitoring stations of for improved information on movements of Grass Carp in Lake Erie Evaluate the detection performance of acoustic receivers in nearshore and inshore habitats. Quantify survival and estimate numbers of tagged fish-at-large periodically and on an as needed basis in support of management actions. Develop quantitative analysis of seasonal movements and habitat use to identify critical areas and times when Grass Carp may most effectively be intercepted for eradication and control efforts.