Spatial Ecology of Fish in Toronto Harbour in Response to Aquatic Habitat Enhancement

Every year billions of dollars are being spent on rehabilitation activities in hopes of improving the state of degraded ecosystems. In this thesis, I considered the practical aspects of acoustic telemetry for studying habitat enhancement and investigated the effectiveness of habitat enhancement initiatives in Toronto Harbour by comparing fish habitat use of six species in two enhanced slips to two non-enhanced slips. During spring, Northern pike were found to spend more time in the enhanced slips compared to the non-enhanced slips. All other species did not spend significantly different amounts of times across the slips. When Largemouth bass and Northern pike were experimentally displaced in the enhanced slips, they left within 29 hours suggesting that the enhanced habitats did not provide substantial direct benefits to adult fish in this study. Overall, telemetry studies with good experimental designs are considered valid tools for management.