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The Michigan 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 these Great Lakes research vessels are designed to examine and collect information on all aspects of the state’s Great Lakes fish community. This information is essential 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. These surveys also continue assessment and evaluation work begun in the 1960s.
“These fisheries research vessels are based in Marquette, Alpena, Charlevoix and Harrison Township and work throughout the Great Lakes on a wide variety of assessments and evaluations,” said Gary Whelan, DNR Fisheries Division research manager. “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 helps to guide sea lamprey control work 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 was launched in 1947 and began its research vessel career in 1968. This vessel focuses work on specific assessments of Lake Huron lake trout and walleye populations, as well as broader fisheries assessments in Saginaw Bay and the St. Marys River that evaluate fish community changes in these valuable Great Lakes systems. The Saginaw Bay evaluations also are conducted jointly 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 that support the highest fishing effort in Michigan’s Great Lakes 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 – 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 state 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. Learn more about these efforts at the Fisheries Division’s Research website or by reviewing theDNR’s fact sheet about these research vessels online.
Additional information about other science vessel operations throughout the Great Lakes can be found at the Great Lakes Association of Science Ships website, canamglass.org.
