Construction of a lake sturgeon reef at Belle Isle in the Detroit River, June 2005. - Photo by Dr. Jennifer Reed.

On May 24^th Fishery Biologist James Boase traveled to Windsor, Ontario to attend the 49^th annual meeting for the International Association of Great Lakes Research. 

Boase, an invited speaker at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge Symposium gave a presentation titled “Fish Response to Construction of an Artificial Lake Sturgeon Spawning Reef in the Detroit River” and was coauthor of four other talks at the meeting. 

All of the talks were focused on the recent research results by biologists from Alpena FRO, and our partners with the USGS Great Lakes Science Center, and Michigan DNR Lake Erie Management Unit. 

Three of the talks focused on success of the artificial lake sturgeon spawning reef located at Bell Isle in the Detroit River.  The remaining two talks addressed the near-shore fish communities in western Lake Erie and the discovery of whitefish spawning in the Detroit River, which was the first documented occurrence in almost 90 years. 

Talks and highlights of the meeting can be accessed at www.iaglr.org .

Approximately 100 researchers and policy makers from the US and Canada attended the symposium. The symposium provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how Alpena FRO is working with state and federal biologists, recreational anglers, and commercial fishers from both Canada and the U.S. to better manage fisheries resources in the Huron Erie Corridor.