Fishery Biologist Woldt holds tagged lake whitefish while Fish and Wildlife Biologist Rawlings records data off Middle Island this November. - USFWS Photo by Jerry McClain

From Nov. 8 through Nov. 11, staff from the Alpena Fishery Resource Office participated in a USFWS Restoration Act funded Lake Huron lake whitefish distribution study.  Service staff involved included Treaty Unit Coordinator Aaron Woldt, Project Leader Jerry McClain, Fishery Biologists Adam Kowalski, Scott Koproski, Susan Wells, Jim Boase, and Anjie Bowen, and Fish and Wildlife Biologist Heather Enterline.  Staff conducted all tagging operations on the commercial trap-net boat the Blonnie W operated by Jim Presau Fisheries.

The goals of this study are to determine the spatial distribution and movement patterns of eight selected lake whitefish stocks in Lake Huron and to determine the contribution of each stock to commercial fishery yields. The eight stocks selected for this study are Detour, Alpena (Middle Island & Thunder Bay), Saginaw Bay, Burnt Island, South Bay mouth, the Fishing Islands, Douglas Point, and Sarnia. From 2004 to 2006 1,500 lake whitefish will be tagged annually at each of the sites, except for Alpena and the Fishing Islands where 3,000 fish will be tagged annually at each site.

In all, seven state, federal, tribal, and provincial partner agencies will be participating in this study.  In 2004, study partners tagged and released a total of 12,520 lake whitefish in Lake Huron.  The Service tagged 1,481 lake whitefish in 2004.  To date, approximately 350 tagged lake whitefish have been harvested and reported by Lake Huron fishers.

In 2005, Service staff successfully Floy tagged and released 1,540 lake whitefish near Middle Island.  Service staff also tagged and released an incidentally caught lake sturgeon as part of an ongoing Lake Huron lake sturgeon monitoring study.  Michigan DNR staff tagged approximately 1,500 lake whitefish in Thunder Bay in November 2005. Tagged fish were measured for length, checked for lamprey wounds, sexed, assessed for maturity, scale sampled for ageing purposes, fin clipped, and released. A random subset of fish were also detained shortly prior to release to measure short term tag retention and handling mortality. Approximately 200 fish were lethally sampled and processed as well.

Data from this study will be entered into a common database maintained by the Alpena FRO.  A combined database with all 2004 data was built by Woldt and distributed to study partners in November.  Combined study data, including 2005 tagging, will be distributed to study partners early in 2006.