Comparison of catch in multifilament and monofilament gill nets in a long-term survey on Lake Michigan

Abstract

Long-term fishery independent surveys provide metrics of relative abundance and contribute biological information critical to effective fisheries management. Improvements in technology and manufacturing processes have had profound effects on gear efficiency. In Lake Michigan, a standardized multi-agency fish community survey was adopted in 1998 which used multifilament nets to survey nearshore fish communities. Contemporary commercial gill netting operations largely utilize monofilament nets because they’re less expensive, more durable and thought to be less visible and therefore more efficient. As such, interest in converting long-term agency surveys to monofilament nets has grown. To compare catch rates and the size of fish collected, we set similarly configured nets of both mesh materials on the same day at standard survey locations. The most common species captured in the survey were lake trout (52%), yellow perch (19%), lake whitefish (15%), longnose sucker (8%), white sucker (4%) and burbot (1%). Monofilament nets were more efficient in capturing lake whitefish and longnose sucker and equally efficient in capturing other species. On average, nearly three times (2.85) as many lake whitefish were captured in monofilaments nets, and two times as many longnose suckers (2.13). Larger lake whitefish and yellow perch were captured in monofilament nets, whereas lake trout were slightly smaller. For other fish species, similar sizes were captured in each net material. This evaluation incorporated broad replication (298 paired nets) and representation from diverse locations and depth strata in Lake Michigan to inform gear conversion efforts and allow for adjustments as needed in gear conversion efforts.