Walleye Spawning Site Fidelity and Habitat Use in Mille Lacs Lake, 2019-2021

70 adult Walleye (Ogaawag) were tracked via acoustic telemetry during the 2019–2021 spawning seasons in Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota. The study, authored by Kayla Lenz and published on figshare, integrates Indigenous knowledge to identify spawning sites, characterize habitat, and quantify spawning site fidelity. It found approximately 64% of tracked fish returned to the same spawning site across years, with activity hotspots correlated to rocky substrate and undeveloped shorelines.

Use Cases

• Modeling spawning site fidelity rates based on the tracked movements of 70 fish.
• Identifying key habitat characteristics for Walleye spawning based on substrate type, wind/wave action, and shoreline development.
• Informing fishery stewardship and conservation planning based on the correlation between spawning hotspots and low onshore development.
• Studying rare reproductive behaviors like skipped spawning, as observed in one female fish.

Strengths

• Integrates Indigenous knowledge with Western scientific methods for data collection and interpretation.
• Provides specific fidelity metrics: 64% of tracked Walleye showed high site fidelity between 2019 and 2020.
• Data collection spans three spawning seasons (2019–2021), offering multi-year behavioral insights.
• Includes habitat characterization for identified spawning reefs, such as substrate type and shoreline development.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset's geographic scope is limited to a single lake (Mille Lacs), which may affect generalizability.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Kayla Lenz.

Collection Method

Data gathered using an acoustic telemetry array to track fish movements, combined with Indigenous knowledge for spawning period definition and site identification.

Time Range

Spawning seasons from 2019 to 2021.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-21 10:52:45; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota, USA.