New tie off pilings (in yellow) installed at Detroit Edison (DTE) Harbor Beach Power plant by Rooney Contracting to aid in securing stocking vessel MV Spencer F. Baird. Photo by Ken Merckel.

In April 2008, staff of the Detroit Edison (DTE) Harbor Beach Power Plant in Harbor Beach, Michigan worked with Rooney Contracting to install tie-off pilings near the existing DTE coal dock to improve accessibility for the Service’s lake trout stocking vessel, the MV Spencer F. Baird.  In past years, DTE allowed the Service to use its Harbor Beach dock as a platform for transferring hatchery reared, yearling lake trout to its previous stocking vessel, the MV Togue.  Due to the dock’s configuration (several round mooring dolphins separated by large distances), Service vessel crew had difficulty safely securing the MV Togue at the dock without the vessel pivoting on the round dolphin.  The MV Baird, which replaced the MV Togue in 2007, presented an even bigger challenge to secure due to its longer length and greater width.

Fishery Biologist Aaron Woldt, Captain Mike Perry, and Seamen Fishermen David Bohn met with Jim Masterson of DTE at the November 2007 Lake Huron Citizens Fishery Advisory Committee meeting to discuss options for improving the dock for Service use.  A subsequent on-site meeting in Harbor Beach with Mike Perry and David Bohn of the Service, Jim Masterson, Mike Trischler, Rocky Boynton, and Tom Wetzel of DTE, and Ken Merckel, Jack Noble, and Jerry Lawrence of the Michigan Steelheaders Thumb Chapter yielded a solution.  DTE agreed to drive a tie off piling 20 feet north and 20 feet south of the second dolphin to aid in securing the boat.  Further, DTE agreed to weld new cleats on the existing dolphin and to widen the road at the base of the dolphin to make it easier for Service hatchery trucks to back-up to the vessel.  DTE paid for all Service requested dock improvements.

Maintaining access to the DTE dock at Harbor Beach was critical to the Service’s lake trout stocking efforts in southern Lake Huron, since no other dock with enough water depth and adjacent dock space to maneuver hatchery trucks exists between Alpena and Harbor Beach.  In June 2008, the Service will deliver five vessel loads of hatchery lake trout (440,000 to 480,000 fish) from the Jordan River National Fish Hatchery to the Port Austin stocking site using the Harbor Beach Power Plant dock.  These fish will directly support the lake trout rehabilitation efforts of the Service, the Lake Huron Technical Committee, and the Lake Huron Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.