The Michigan Department of Natural Resources' Alpena Fisheries Research Station today will begin its annual spring lake trout assessment in Lake Huron and continue through mid-June.
This year's survey will mark the end of service for the 69-year-old research vessel Chinook, as the department's new Lake Huron research vessel Tanner, named in honor of former DNR Fisheries Division Chief and DNR Director Dr. Howard Tanner, will enter service in late May.
"This survey maintains our decades-long series of fishery-independent lake trout surveys throughout the main basin of Lake Huron, from the eastern Upper Peninsula to the Thumb coast," said Ji He, DNR fisheries research biologist and project leader for Lake Huron lake trout assessment. "This survey collects critical population measurements such as post-stocking survival, recruitment of wild lake trout, adult lake trout abundance, growth and body condition, age and size composition and sea lamprey wounding rate."
The data from this survey are used by the DNR and partner agencies to manage lake trout populations in the main basin of Lake Huron.
The survey will be completed by a six-member crew aboard the R/V Chinook in April and early May, and then by the R/V Tanner in late May and June. DNR staff will set 6-foot-high nylon gill nets on the lake bottom at 14 survey stations from Drummond Island in the north to Port Sanilac in the south. At each survey station, the survey nets will be set overnight at four depths ranging from 30 to 200 feet.
Although the Lake Huron food web and ecosystem are rapidly changing, the division efforts have documented stable adult lake trout catch rates and continued increases in wild lake trout reproduction and recruitment. In fact, adult lake trout catch rates have increased in northern and north central Lake Huron.
"It is very exciting to conduct this survey at such a unique time for lake trout rehabilitation in Lake Huron," said He.
The mission of the Alpena Fisheries Research Station is to support science-based fisheries management in Lake Huron by collecting, synthesizing and sharing fish community and habitat data with department staff, partners and Michigan citizens. For more information about the survey, contact Ji He at 989-356-3232, ext. 2573.
This year's survey will mark the end of service for the 69-year-old research vessel Chinook, as the department's new Lake Huron research vessel Tanner, named in honor of former DNR Fisheries Division Chief and DNR Director Dr. Howard Tanner, will enter service in late May.
"This survey maintains our decades-long series of fishery-independent lake trout surveys throughout the main basin of Lake Huron, from the eastern Upper Peninsula to the Thumb coast," said Ji He, DNR fisheries research biologist and project leader for Lake Huron lake trout assessment. "This survey collects critical population measurements such as post-stocking survival, recruitment of wild lake trout, adult lake trout abundance, growth and body condition, age and size composition and sea lamprey wounding rate."
The data from this survey are used by the DNR and partner agencies to manage lake trout populations in the main basin of Lake Huron.
The survey will be completed by a six-member crew aboard the R/V Chinook in April and early May, and then by the R/V Tanner in late May and June. DNR staff will set 6-foot-high nylon gill nets on the lake bottom at 14 survey stations from Drummond Island in the north to Port Sanilac in the south. At each survey station, the survey nets will be set overnight at four depths ranging from 30 to 200 feet.
Although the Lake Huron food web and ecosystem are rapidly changing, the division efforts have documented stable adult lake trout catch rates and continued increases in wild lake trout reproduction and recruitment. In fact, adult lake trout catch rates have increased in northern and north central Lake Huron.
"It is very exciting to conduct this survey at such a unique time for lake trout rehabilitation in Lake Huron," said He.
The mission of the Alpena Fisheries Research Station is to support science-based fisheries management in Lake Huron by collecting, synthesizing and sharing fish community and habitat data with department staff, partners and Michigan citizens. For more information about the survey, contact Ji He at 989-356-3232, ext. 2573.
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