The Department of Natural Resources today announced that all four of its fisheries research vessels are back on the water, beginning their annual surveys of Great Lakes fish populations. Surveys conducted by the DNR Fisheries Division’s Great Lakes research vessels are designed to examine relative abundance, total amount in weight, growth, health, diet, survival rates, natural reproduction and movements of fish in the Great Lakes. This information is vital in supporting the DNR’s mission to conserve, protect and manage the billion-dollar Great Lakes fishery resource for the use and enjoyment of current and future generations and continues assessment and evaluation work begun in the 1960s.
Research vessels are home-ported in Marquette, Alpena, Charlevoix and Harrison Township, but work throughout the lakes on a variety of assessments and evaluations. Operations start as soon as ice has cleared from the lakes and continue well into November.
Fisheries assessment and evaluation work on Lake Superior is conducted by the research vessel (R/V) Lake Char which is the DNR’s newest vessel, launched in 2007. The R/V Lake Char focuses efforts on Lake Superior’s self-sustaining lake trout populations. Information collected by this vessel is used to generate annual lake trout harvest quotas to ensure the continued health of these fish populations and on lake trout sea lamprey wounding rates, a key mortality factor for this species. The latter effort guides sea lamprey control efforts by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Lake Huron fisheries assessments and evaluations are conducted by the R/V Chinook which has been in operation since 1947 and a research vessel since 1968. This vessel focuses work on specific assessments of Lake Huron lake trout and walleye populations, as well as broader fish community assessments in Saginaw Bay and the St. Marys River that evaluate fish community changes in these valuable Great Lakes systems. The Saginaw Bay evaluations are also frequently conducted with the R/V Channel Cat which is based in Lake St. Clair at the Fisheries Research Station in Harrison Township.
Assessment and evaluation of fish populations in lakes St. Clair and Erie are entrusted to the R/V Channel Cat which has been in service since 1968. This vessel focuses its sampling on walleye, yellow perch and lake sturgeon in these waters.
On Lake Michigan, the survey vessel S/V Steelhead (also in operation since 1968) conducts a variety of fisheries assessments and evaluations, including spring evaluations of adult yellow perch, whitefish, lake trout and Chinook salmon populations. Later in the summer, the S/V Steelhead teams up with vessels from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to evaluate lakewide forage fish abundance, which is critical information for the proper management of trout and salmon in this lake.
“The DNR is responsible for management of more abundant and diverse fishery resources than any other natural resource agency in the Great Lakes region, and the survey vessels are critical to this effort,” said DNR Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter.
Throughout the summer, DNR vessels are visible residents of Great Lakes ports. The public is encouraged to visit the vessels and talk with the crews about fisheries assessment operations. To learn more about the efforts of each of the DNR’s vessels, please visit www.michigan.gov/fishresearch. The DNR’s fact sheet about these research vessels is available at www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/RV-FactSheet_454641_7.pdf?20140501100007.
Additional information about other science vessel operations throughout the Great Lakes can be found at the Great Lakes Association of Science Ships website, www.canamglass.org.
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