Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) - Habitat Utilization

In May of 2007 we initiated a radio telemetry project for spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) in Rondeau Bay on Lake Erie with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Windsor. The objective of this study was to examine habitat utilization to identify and protect critical spawning and post-spawning habitat. Gars have extremely hard ganoid scales, that necessitated the use of specialized surgical instruments and surgical techniques (including a power drill) to externally attach radio transmitters to 18 fish on May 17th 2007. On May 18th most of the fish were successfully tracked and four of the radio tagged fish were located in a large spawning aggregation along with several dozen untagged adult fish.