Shown is a Michigan Department of Natural Resources specialized fish-stocking truck. They have helped carry and release more than 21 million fish to public waters around Michigan in 2018. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources)

MARQUETTE — Marquette State Fish Hatchery on Cherry Creek Road in Marquette stocked nearly 550,000 yearling lake trout, brook trout and splake in 2018, which are among the 21.1 million fish stocked in Michigan’s public waters so far this year.

The fish, consisting of rainbow trout, chinook salmon, steelhead and seven other species and one hybrid weigh a combined 333 tons, according to a press release from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The number and type of fish stocked varied depending on stocking requests, hatchery rearing assignments, and the source and temperature of each facility’s rearing water.

Jim Aho, DNR fisheries biologist, said the temperatures at the Marquette hatchery were optimal this past year.

“Marquette had very good health conditions on our fish. They came out very large,” Aho said.

The hatchery in Marquette is one of six state hatcheries and two cooperative hatcheries that together produce the species, strain and size of fish requested by fisheries managers.

Other hatcheries that stocked the fish include:

≤ Harrietta State Fish Hatchery, west of Cadillac, stocked 1,126,801 brown and rainbow trout.

≤ Oden State Fish Hatchery near Petoskey stocked 659,638 brown and rainbow trout.

≤ Platte River State Fish Hatchery near Honor stocked 2,137,473 fish including yearling Atlantic and coho salmon and spring fingerling chinook salmon.

≤ Thompson State Fish Hatchery near Manistique stocked 1,011,134 fish including yearling steelhead and spring fingerling chinook salmon.

≤ Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery near Kalamazoo stocked 1,154,861 fish including yearling steelhead, spring fingerling chinook salmon, Great Lakes strain muskellunge and channel catfish.

≤ A cooperative teaching hatchery at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie stocked 34,973 Atlantic salmon.

Details on weight and sites are available on the DNR’s fish stocking webpage at www.michigandnr.com/fishstock.