AGE, GROWTH, AND PRODUCTION OF YELLOW PERCH IN LAKE ERIE 



By FRANK W. JOBES, Fishery Research Biologist 



The American yellow perch, Perca flavescens 

 (Mitchill), is one of the most common food fishes 

 native to the lakes and streams of the northeastern 

 United States and southeastern Canada. It con- 

 tributes heavily to the take by hook and line 

 throughout its range and foiTas an important part 

 of the catch of the modern commercial fisherj' in 

 the Great Lakes. 



The present study of the yellow perch is part of 

 an extensive investigation of the Lake Erie com- 

 mercial fisheries begun by the former U. S. Bureau 

 of Fisheries and continued by the U. S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service. In the years 1927 through 1931 

 field work was carried on in cooperation with the 

 States of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the 

 Province of Ontario, the city of Buffalo, and the 

 Buffalo Society of Natural Science; materials were 

 collected also in 1932, 1934, and 1937, and in the 

 years 1943 through 1948. This report is based 

 primarily on the data for the specified years from 

 1927 to 1937 (referred to here as 1927-37) because 

 in each of those years the materials consisted of 

 random samples of aU yeUow perch taken by the 

 nets. The 1943-48 data are from random sam- 

 ples of the commercial catch only (fish 8)2 inches 

 or more in total length) and will be used only 

 where they add to the knowledge gained from the 

 1927-37 data. 



The assistance of the officials and employees of 



all the agencies involved in this investigation is 

 deeply appreciated. Without their cooperation in 

 the collection of data and the loan of materials 

 this study would have been much more restricted 

 in scope, if not impossible. Special thanks are due 

 Dr. John Van Oosten for directing the study and 

 critically examining the manuscript, and Dr. 

 Ralph HUe for substantial assistance in the anal- 

 j'sis and interpretation of the data. N. H. Lager- 

 strom, Oberlin, Ohio, translated the Swedish and 

 Norwegian references listed in the bibliography. 



Several authors have studied the age and growth 

 of the yellow perch without making a critical study 

 of the validity of age determinations based on 

 scales. Jobes (1933) and Schneberger (1935) cal- 

 culated lengths from scale measurements on the 

 assumption that the ratio of body length to scale 

 length is constant after the first annulus is formed. 

 Hile and, Jobes (1941) determined the body-scale 

 relation for the yellow perch in Saginaw Bay 

 (Lake Hui-on) and corrected the lengths computed 

 by direct proportion to conform to the empiri- 

 cally determined body-scale relation. Before a 

 detailed study of the life history of the yellow 

 perch in Lake Erie could be undertaken, it was 

 necessary to demonstrate that ages read from 

 scales are accm'ate and to determine the most 

 satisfactoiy method of calculating growth from 

 scale measurements. 



COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF YELLOW PERCH IN LAKE ERIE 



The earliest records of the production of yellow 

 perch in Lake Erie are for the year 1885. The 

 species was taken commerciaUy before that time 

 but was not considered important enough to war- 

 rant separate treatment in the earlier statistical 

 reports. Table 1 gives the available figures on 

 production for the years 1885 to 1947. The pro- 

 duction records for United States waters, for On- 

 tario waters, and for the entire lake are sho\\Ti 

 graphically in figure 1. 



Although the record of the catch in the United 

 States waters is not complete for the earlier years 

 of the fisher}', the annual yield appears to have 

 been greater before 1900 than in the period im- 

 mediately after. The extremes in the fluctuation 

 in annual production during the earhest period, 

 1885-99, occurred in the years 1885 and 1889, 

 when catches of 1,601,000 and 3,830,000 pounds 

 were reported. The fragmentary statistics indi- 

 cate a good production in this period; the average 



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