Stocking up on salmon
By SAM EGGLESTON, Journal Ishpeming BureauArticle Photos
The project, which involves penning fingerling salmon in the river to acclimate them to their new environment before releasing them into the wild, took place at noon near the mouth of the Dead River. The pens, which are maintained by the South Shore Fishing Association, allow the fingerlings to be kept in the Dead River until they are large enough to be introduced into Lake Superior and hopefully one day become available to anglers.
“It’s a team effort to keep this program a success,” said George Madison, Michigan Department of Natural Resources supervisor for the Western Lake Superior Management Unit based in Baraga. “We provide the fish, the South Shore Fishing Association provides the labor and WE Energies keeps an eye on everything for us.”
WE Energies, which operates the Presque Isle power plant on the Dead River, owns the property where the pens are anchored, ensuring the pens are not disturbed or vandalized.
This year’s crop of chinook will number about 120,000, said Madison, an increase from the expected order of around 90,000. The initial batch of 90,000 arrived Tuesday and the additional 30,000 will be stocked Friday at the same location.
“It’s really a worthy effort,” said Jim Kelly, president of the South Shore Fishing Association. “We’ve been doing this since 2002 and we’re definitely noticing an improved king salmon catch.”
According to Madison, it takes four to five years for a fingerling salmon to grow into an appropriate sports fish. This year’s penned fish were hatched in January, he said.
Kelly said the program has several benefits — it not only allows the fish to be imprinted to the Dead River, but it also protects them from predators.
“It allows the fish to smolt, which is a genetic imprint for the fish to where they were born,” Kelly said. “The fish go out and live their whole life in the lake and then when they come back to breed they go to where they were born. This type of process gives a better return rate to the Marquette harbor and creates a better, sustainable fishery around here.”
Releasing the fish directly into the river would result in a larger percentage being taken by predators, Kelly said. While other fish would feast on the bite-size salmon if they were outside of the pens, Tuesday morning made it clear that a more prominent threat was in the sky.
Cormorants almost immediately started surveying the river when the fisheries truck arrived to stock the pens, causing one volunteer to shake his head.
“It’s like they can smell these trucks,” he said.
Madison nodded, noting he’s been on several stocking sites where the fish-eating birds just appeared as the fish were being put into the water.
“Sometimes I think they follow the trucks from the hatcheries,” he joked.
Following the trucks or not, the cormorants continued to flutter through the area as the pens were stocked and then locked.
“These pens are going to make for a much lower mortality rate,” Kelly said. “That’s why I think this is such a worthwhile effort and that’s why the association is going to continue to be a part of it.”
