ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses investigations on natural cobble shoals in eastern Lake Ontario and our artificial reef project in western Lake Ontario. It focuses on a comparison of biotic communities between natural shoals in eastern Lake Ontario which have considerable vertical relief and the flat bedrock and cobble substrates which characterize western Lake Ontario near the artificial reef site. Moreover, interest in artificial reef development as a fishery management strategy has been gaining momentum in the Great Lakes. Indeed, biotic communities can be considered stream-like habitats within lakes and are unique to the Great Lakes and other large lakes where physical features of the environment play such a prominent role. Rocky substrates are clearly important for lake trout spawning but their broader role in the ecology of coldwater game fishes in the Great Lakes remains unclear. Numbers of fishes in Mexico Bay and off Olcott were dramatically different, with fish and benthos data exhibiting similar trends.
