Altered energetics and parasitism in juvenile northern pike (Esox lucius) inhabiting metal-mining contaminated lakes

The objective of this study was to evaluate possible factors that could be contributing to altered bioenergetics of juvenile northern pike (Esox lucius) living in lakes receiving effluent from the Key Lake uranium mill in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Although glycogen and triglycerides stores in liver and muscle were significantly greater in pike from exposure lakes compared to the reference, triglycerides stores of aquatic insects and spottail shiners that are prey items of juvenile pike showed no overall differences among lakes. Measures of parasitism, on the other hand, were negatively correlated with pike bioenergetics thereby reflecting a possible energetic cost of parasitism on reference lake fishes. The degree of infection, as measured by the abundance and biomass of intestinal parasites and the abundance of monogeneans on pike gills, was greatest in reference fishes and intermediate in low-exposure pike, whereas high-exposure fishes harbored no parasites.