Assessment of landed and non-landed by-catch of walleye, yellow perch and white perch from the commercial gillnet fisheries of Lake Erie, 1994–2007

Theoretical by-catch (including landed and non-landed bycatch) of walleye (S. vitreus), yellow perch (Perca flavescens), and white perch (Morone americana) from the Lake Erie commercial gillnet fisheries during 1994–2007, was predicted by a delta model developed on the fishery-independent survey data (Lake Erie Partnership Index Fishing Survey). The delta model consisted of one generalized additive model and one AdaBoost model. The generalized additive model was used to predict non-zero catches of the by-catch species, and the AdaBoost model was used to predict the probability of obtaining non-zero catches. Non-landed by-catch was estimated as the difference between the theoretical by-catch predicted from the delta model and the landed by-catch recorded in the commercial fishery data. The theoretical by-catch of walleye was relatively higher in the west basin in October. A higher theoretical by-catch of yellow perch occurred in the west central basin in November, and a higher theoretical by-catch of white perch occurred in the west central basin in October. We observed higher levels of non-landed by-catch of walleye in the west basin during August to September, higher levels of non-landed by-catch of yellow perch in the west central and east central basins in November, and higher levels of non-landed by-catch of white perch in the west basin in August and November. The combination of the AdaBoost model with the delta model provided an alternative model in by-catch analyses when the percentage of zero observations was high.

Research highlights
► West basin was the hotspot for walleye and white perch non-landed by-catch.
► Central basins were hotspots for yellow perch non-landed by-catch.
► Combination of AdaBoost model with delta model outperformed the candidate models.