ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS AFFECTING WALLEYE OA SURVIVAL IN THE LOWER FOX RIVER

Abstract

The Fox River is a major tributary into Lake Michigan's Green Bay with an average discharge of 117 m3 sec-1 and an average gradient of 0.81 m km-1 in the last 62 km of the river (Epstein et al., 1974). Since the early l900's the river has been subjected to a high degree of urbanization and industrialization. The construction of power dams, locks and regularly main­ tained navigation channels coupled with the development of an industrial setting that includes 15 pulp and paper mills and 11 municipal sewage treat­ment plants makes the Fox River one of the most densely developed industrial river basins in the world (WDNR 1978).