The main goal of the work was collection of gametes for continued development of brood stock to be used for rehabilitation stocking. Development of Isle Royale coaster brook trout brood stock began in 1995 with collection of gametes from rivers in the Siskiwit Bay area. This brood stock was to serve as an ?insurance policy? for rare, wild populations of unknown size and potential for decline, and to be source of fish that could be used in future rehabilitation stocking throughout Lake Superior. Crews have been in this Siskiwit Bay area in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Nick Grueneis, Animal Caretaker at Iron River NFH and Glenn Miller, Fisheries Biologist started off the trip, setting fyke nets in the Big and Little Sisikiwit Rivers and electrofishing both rivers to collect spawning adults. Mid way through the project, Roger Gordon, Genoa NFH Fisheries Biologist and Jonathan Pyatskowit, Ashland FRO Fisheries Biologist joined Nick and Glenn, and the full crew proceeded to collect the gametes from the coaster brook trout adults that had been held in small nets in the Big Siskiwit River. Nick and Glenn returned to the mainland to deliver the gametes from four pair of coasters and Roger and Jonathan finished out trip, returning with six more sets of gametes. These eggs will be raised in the Genoa NFH and kept in isolation for 18 months. After that time period, and if the fish passing three health inspections, they will be integrated into the brood stock at the Iron River NFH.

Another project in October was to assess the abundance of fingerling coasters stocked into Siskiwit Bay and the Big and Little Siskiwit rivers from previous years. Fingerlings stocked were progeny of Siskiwit Bay strain coasters being reared at Iron River NFH. All fish stocked were marked with a fin clip and a portion stocked in tributary streams also received a coded wire tag to facilitate assessment. Nick and Glenn surveyed the Little Siskiwit River for stocked fingerlings. While conducting this survey they were able to obtain a pair of spawning adult coaster brook which were held for possible spawning. Unfortunately for the gamete collection part of the project, this pair was almost spent from spawning in the Little Siskiwit River and was not used.

For the third part of the island festivities, Jonathan and Roger completed surveying the fish community and riparian and instream habitat in the Big Siskiwit and Little Siskiwit rivers to determine the status and monitor trends of the fish community and habitat. The Michigan DNR recently established a protocol and implemented a state-wide program to assess fish community status and trends in streams. These surveys will contribute to that Michigan DNR's effort as well as provide fish community trend data for management and regulation recommendations to Isle Royale National Park. Stations established were categorized as fixed stations with a sampling segment of 1,000?. Fish were captured by backpack electrofishing, measured, and returned to the stream. All trout captured were also weighed and marked. The mark ? recapture of trout will be used to estimate population size. Habitat was characterized both instream and streamside. Instream measurements included estimates of substrate composition, width and depth at cross stream transects, and stream velocity. Streamside habitat was characterized by bank stability and dominant vegetation within 30? of bank at cross stream transects. Fish surveys will be repeated yearly for three years followed by a three year break and then another three years of sampling.