Salmon stocking in Lake Michigan to increase
- By Steve Begnoche Special to the Daily News
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- Feb 26, 2021 Updated Feb 27, 2021
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Saying the balance between alewife stock and Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan is in a good spot as evidenced by the large size of Chinook, Lake Michigan is expected to receive an extra 220,000 Chinook during stocking this year.This year’s plan calls for 879,306 Chinook to be planted in Lake Michigan, up from 654,306 in 2020.“That’s a big improvement over where we were at in 2017 when we had 317,000 chinook were planted,” Jay Wesley, Lake Michigan Coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said.The ports of Grand Haven and St. Joseph are earmarked to receive those additional planted fish, because the southern ports are outside of the 1836 treaty waters of Lake Michigan. Since treaty negotiations are under way with tribal representatives, Wesley said fisheries managers were advised to not increase the salmon plant this year in the treaty waters.The increase in salmon stocking replaces yearling steelhead that can’t be planted this year because steelhead egg take didn’t occur in spring 2020 due to COVID-19.Wesley presented the information to an online webinar called Michigan Steelhead Fisheries that Michigan Sea Grant put on Thursday. The webinar this year was done in lieu of the regional fisheries workshop traditionally hosted in Ludington in late January in conjunction with the Ludington Area Charter Boat Association. That workshop was canceled due to the pandemic. For years, projected stocking numbers were released at the Ludington workshop.The salmon news is far from all good, though.“We’re in a situation (where) we have a low chinook population and low alewife data,” Wesley said.Blame COVID again in part for the low data as the pandemic prevented some of the prey surveys normally done each year. Three bottom trawl surveys were completed but they didn’t find many alewife, and acoustic surveys didn’t take place, Wesley said.Fisheries managers continue to look at how to improve acoustic surveys which lake anglers contend are not accurately accounting for alewife which in recent years they report seeing in greater numbers than data indicates.Wesley said managers are looking at ways to improve the acoustic surveys, perhaps even deploying drones because of concern noise from a newer survey boat being used is scaring off alewife before they are recorded by survey equipment.“We’re trying to figure that out,” he said.The salmon stocking plan in use calls for 654,306 being planted annually with ports varying on odd or even years.
: •This year the plan calls for:• 92,000 plants at Port Medusa (Charlevoix);• 228,000 in the Little Manistee River where the weir and egg take facility is that provides the salmon eggs for the state’s planting program;• 75,000 in the Muskegon River;• 241,806 in Grand Haven (111,500 more than the normal plan);• and 242,500 at St. Joseph (112,5000 more than the normal plan.Other species to be stocked by Michigan in Lake Michigan this year include:• 296,000 brown trout;• 1.5 million Coho salmon;• 2.1 million lake trout;• and 300,000 fall fingerling steelhead but no yearling steelhead.Wisconsin also stocks fish in Lake Michigan. Its 2020 plan called for 1.2 million Chinook to be planted in Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan.
