ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS AFFECTING WALLEYE OVA 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 maintained 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).