Hamilton Reef
08-11-2008, 09:24 PM
Wisconsin hatches plan to restore lake trout
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-laketrout,0,228824.story
08/10/08
CLEVELAND, Wis. - A new plan to restore native populations of lake trout in Lake Michigan calls for intensive stocking of the fish in deep waters.
Officials with Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources plan to discuss the new effort on Monday night at Lake Shore Technical College.
The plan involves placing lake trout in deep water off Sheboygan in an area known as the mid-reef complex and in Michigan waters near Beaver Island.
Stocking to restore lake trout started in the 1950s, but so far the fish have only been fully restored in Lake Superior.
"Spawning by stocked lake trout has been documented over the past half-century in Lake Michigan, but we can't say that any of those eggs have survived to adulthood to help starting to rebuild naturally reproducing populations," said Bill Horns, Great Lakes fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Horns and other experts hope this latest endeavor will be more successful.
Concentrating stocking on deep waters already mostly off limits to anglers will give the fish the best chance of surviving and reproducing, Horns said.
The deep waters also are less affected by alewives, an invasive fish species that biologists believe may harm lake trout reproduction.
Overall, the plan calls for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise and stock 3.31 million yearlings and 550,000 fingerlings.
The plan also calls for stocking three different strains of lake trout in an effort to increase genetic diversity and ultimately, natural reproduction.
The Seneca Lake strain is from a New York lake of the same name and is believed to be less vulnerable to sea lamprey attacks than other strains.
The Lewis Lake strain is derived from Lake Michigan ancestors and now resides in a Wyoming lake of the same name. The Apostle Island strain is taken from that area of Lake Superior.
Lake trout were a mainstay of commercial fishing in the early 1900s but had declined in all the Great Lakes by the 1930s, and by the 1950s, were extinct in Lake Michigan.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-laketrout,0,228824.story
08/10/08
CLEVELAND, Wis. - A new plan to restore native populations of lake trout in Lake Michigan calls for intensive stocking of the fish in deep waters.
Officials with Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources plan to discuss the new effort on Monday night at Lake Shore Technical College.
The plan involves placing lake trout in deep water off Sheboygan in an area known as the mid-reef complex and in Michigan waters near Beaver Island.
Stocking to restore lake trout started in the 1950s, but so far the fish have only been fully restored in Lake Superior.
"Spawning by stocked lake trout has been documented over the past half-century in Lake Michigan, but we can't say that any of those eggs have survived to adulthood to help starting to rebuild naturally reproducing populations," said Bill Horns, Great Lakes fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Horns and other experts hope this latest endeavor will be more successful.
Concentrating stocking on deep waters already mostly off limits to anglers will give the fish the best chance of surviving and reproducing, Horns said.
The deep waters also are less affected by alewives, an invasive fish species that biologists believe may harm lake trout reproduction.
Overall, the plan calls for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise and stock 3.31 million yearlings and 550,000 fingerlings.
The plan also calls for stocking three different strains of lake trout in an effort to increase genetic diversity and ultimately, natural reproduction.
The Seneca Lake strain is from a New York lake of the same name and is believed to be less vulnerable to sea lamprey attacks than other strains.
The Lewis Lake strain is derived from Lake Michigan ancestors and now resides in a Wyoming lake of the same name. The Apostle Island strain is taken from that area of Lake Superior.
Lake trout were a mainstay of commercial fishing in the early 1900s but had declined in all the Great Lakes by the 1930s, and by the 1950s, were extinct in Lake Michigan.