The Michigan Division of Pure Sources has determined to place out a proposal for growing the stocking of Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan. After many years of fish stocking decreases to assist with balancing the alewife and Chinook salmon populations, the Michigan DNR is reporting seeing good indicators that stocking will increase could also be wanted in Lake Michigan for the approaching 12 months or years.
To be clear about this proposal and obtain public suggestions, the Michigan Division of Pure Sources can be internet hosting a digital assembly on Monday, Sept. nineteenth, from 7:00 pm to eight:30 pm.
“We’ve seen a number of years of excellent Chinook salmon development and have a slight improve within the alewife biomass, or abundance of these fish,” mentioned Jay Wesley, the DNR’s Lake Michigan basin coordinator. “Though the alewife biomass is a fraction of what it was traditionally, we have now 2021-year class and have seen as much as six-year lessons of alewives in our fisheries surveys – which means there are as much as six completely different age teams within the present inhabitants of alewife.”
The time period “12 months class” refers to all fish of any species that have been hatched both naturally within the wild or in hatcheries throughout that 12 months’s fish spawning interval. Coordinator Wesley says {that a} lately run predator-prey mannequin means that Lake Michigan has ratio of Chinook salmon to alewife biomass. This was one of many many indicators used to make these new stocking choices.
“The proposed 54% improve from 650,000 to 1 million spring fingerlings is a modest improve in comparison with the estimated 4.5 million wild Chinook salmon in Lake Michigan,” mentioned Wesley. “It can permit us to extend numbers at websites like Charlevoix that contribute to your complete lake fishery and reinstate stocking websites like Ludington State Park and Fairport.”
Assembly particulars
Michigan Sea Grant will help with the Zoom assembly:
- Save the date: Monday, Sept. 19, 7 to eight:30 p.m.
- Passcode: 2022
- Or be a part of by way of phone: 646-876-9923 or 301-715-8592
- Webinar ID: 994 1124 7153
- Questions? Contact Jay Wesley
Contact: Jay Wesley, 616-490-5090
