Great Lakes

The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada-United States border.

The deepwater cisco (Coregonus johannae) was one of the largest ciscoes in the Great Lakes.

For example, a study of population sizes in the lower Great Lakes from 1971 to 2000 found that mute swan numbers were increasing at an average rate of at least 10% per year, with the population doubling every seven to eight years.

In the Great Lakes, Atlantic salmon have been reintroduced, but the percentage of salmon reproducing naturally is very low.

In North America, they winter mainly along north Atlantic and north-east Pacific coasts, many stopping off on the Great Lakes during their migration.

Watersheds in which pike are found include the Ohio Valley, the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries, and the Great Lakes Basin.

The survival rate for introduced populations in the Great Lakes is as high as 70 percent.

During the last Ice Age, they split into distinct groups and evolved into three regionally unique subspecies: the Eastern painted turtle (found along the Atlantic coast), the Midland painted turtle (living around the Great Lakes), and the Western painted turtle (the largest group, spanning the west coast and Canada).

After this success, Chinook were introduced into the other Great Lakes, where sport fishermen prize them for their aggressive behaviour on the hook.

Many are considered "world-class" such as in the Great Lakes and in several Arkansas tailwaters.

Notably in the Great Lakes region, Micropterus nigricans along with many other species of native fish have been known to prey upon the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus).

Since the 1980s, the species has invaded the Great Lakes, Hudson River, Lake Travis, Finger Lakes, Lake Bonaparte, and Lake Simcoe.

Now, their range is limited to much of the Eastern United States and adjacent southern Canada, including the drainage basins of the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, and various rivers exiting in the Eastern Seaboard or Gulf of Mexico.

Its peripheral range extended into the Great Lakes, with occurrences in Lake Huron and Lake Helen in Canada until about 1917.

Pink salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes of North America.

The quagga mussel is currently of major concern as an invasive species where it has spread in the rivers and lakes of Europe and also in the Great Lakes of North America, where it was brought by overseas shipping that uses the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Hubbs described a taxon called the blue walleye (S. glaucus) from the Great Lakes but subsequent taxonomic work showed no consistent differences between this form and the "yellow" walleye and the blue walleye is now considered to be a synonym and color variant of the walleye.

Its range in southern Canada includes the Great Lakes (excluding Lake Superior) and parts of the Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba provinces.

They forage for food on beaches and tidal flats, usually by sight.

In winter, they are found on and near large bodies of seawater, such as the Northern Pacific Ocean, the North Atlantic Ocean, Hudson Bay and the North American Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes region maintains a large population of Canada geese.

Their breeding habitat is large lakes and ocean coasts in North America (including the Great Lakes), and locally in Europe (mainly around the Baltic Sea and Black Sea), Asia, Africa, and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand).

During the winter months, they are found in coastal bays, estuaries, and sometimes inland lakes, such as the lakes of Central Europe and the Great Lakes.

It also is commonly found in Lake Michigan and the lower portion of the Great Lakes.

It is migratory, wintering from in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans as far south as the British Isles and northernmost states of the United States, also on the Great Lakes.

The E. americanus subspecies are not as highly prized as a game fish as their larger cousins, the northern pike and muskellunge, but they are nevertheless caught by anglers.

Introduced into North America as an ornamental plant it has now become a serious invasive weed in the Great Lakes area and in parts of the Pacific Northwest.

North America: Hudson Bay (Nelson and Red river drainages), Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins from Ontario to Saskatchewan in Canada and Montana in the US, and south to Louisiana in the US.

Lawrence River, Quebec and all of the Great Lakes except Superior.

Lawrence, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River systems.

Five-lined skink populations may also occur among driftwood piles on the sandy beaches of the Great Lakes (Harding 1997).

They can be found year-round in the lower Great Lakes area, but generally breed in the northern area of their range and winter in the south along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and on several Caribbean Islands.