Cayuga Lake: Effects of Exploitation and Introductions on the Salmonid Community

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Abstract
Cayuga Lake, a glacially formed, warm monomictic lake in New York State, has an area of 172.1 km2 and a mean depth of 54.5 m. It now exhibits qualitative signs of eutrophication in phytoplankton composition and aquatic vegetation. However, hypolimnetic oxygen depletion has not changed to any great extent over the last fifty years.Early commercial fisheries were for nonsalmonid species. Whitefish have apparently never been common in the lake, though cisco have at times been abundant. In recent times the lake and rainbow trouts have provided an appreciable sport fishery. The lake trout population is maintained by annual stocking at a level that provides good sport fishing. Natural reproduction is not successful for lake trout, presumably due to siltation of spawning areas.Introduced species appear to have caused some changes in the native fish community. The alewife appears to have replaced the cisco and now is the major forage species in the lake. Other important introductions include the smelt and the sea lamprey. The salmonine populations were built up despite the presence of sea lamprey. Life history information on other species common in the lake is presented.

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