The U.S Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) Lower Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (LGLFWCO) Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) program conducts Eurasian Ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua) bottom trawl surveys annually. Dedicated Ruffe surveillance occurs across harbors and ports of the Great Lakes with the intent of detecting Ruffe range expansions. The LGLFWCO began conducting Ruffe surveys in 1994 and continue this effort to present day, excluding 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions which prevented sampling for that year. LGLFWCO Ruffe sampling focuses on harbors and ports of the lower Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario) and has included the following locations: Toledo (Ohio), Sandusky (Ohio), Cleveland (Ohio), Ashtabula (Ohio), Conneaut (Ohio), Erie (Pennsylvania), Buffalo (New York), and Rochester (New York). All LGLFWCO Ruffe sampling is conducted using bottom trawls (4.9 m headrope) and intends to sample the benthic fish community. Sampling locations are visited biannually (spring and fall) and trawls occur at historical trawling transects denoted for each port or harbor. Although each location is sampled biannually, there is some variability in the seasonality of surveys - this can be made apparent in the water temperatures collected during sampling events. Although the primary objective of these surveys is to search for Ruffe, many native and non-native (i.e. Round Goby) species are collected. Similar to our Early Detection and Monitoring (EDM) program, all fish collected during the trawls are counted and identified to species in the field using taxonomic keys. If an identification cannot be made in the field, the specimen or some of its tissue is preserved using 95% ethanol (EtOH) and identifications are made in the laboratory either taxonomically or genetically (recent survey years; Northeast Fishery Center). A subset of individuals from each species are measured (total length; mm) in the field.

Important: No LGLFWCO trawling efforts, historically or presently, have detected Ruffe within sampling locations of the lower Great Lakes. In a situation where Ruffe were detected, that detection(s) would be reported to partners following an internal communications protocol.