(Left to Right) Dr. Ed Roseman (USGS), Congressman John Dingell, and James Boase from the Alpena National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, participate in the 2007 lake whitefish release event on the Detroit River.

Fisheries Biologists James Boase and Jim McFee from Alpena National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO), working with biologists from United States Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center (USGS), completed a third year of pre-assessment lake whitefish survey work on the Detroit River.  Sampling was conducted from mid-October through early December in both United States and Canadian waters focusing particular attention on areas near Fighting Island and at the mouth of the Detroit River where it empties into Lake Erie.  The location near Fighting Island will be the site of an artificial spawning reef to be constructed in 2008.  The first whitefish adults were captured in the river in the fall of 2005 but the biologists were unable to capture adults in the river in 2006 despite an increase in sampling effort.  During the same period lake whitefish eggs were collected throughout the river using a combination of egg-mats and by sucking the eggs off of the bottom using a diaphragm pump.  In the spring of 2006 and 2007 larval whitefish were collected after they hatched from eggs and began drifting in the water column.  These findings helped identify locations in the river to focus efforts to capture more adults in the fall of 2007 and as a result we were able to capture 13 spawning adult lake whitefish.

All eggs and larvae captured each year have been incubated and reared by researchers at the USGS and in the fall of 2006 and 2007 they were released back into the Detroit River in ceremonies commemorating the positive changes that have been taking place on the Detroit River and have been attended by such dignitaries as Congressman John D. Dingell (MI 15), Congressman John Conyers (MI 14), Member of Canadian Parliament Jeff Watson, Canadian Consul General Robert Noble, along with number of local, state, and municipal politicians.

Whitefish are currently the most sought after commercial species in the Great Lakes and at one time they were harvested in huge numbers in Lake Erie.  Historically the Detroit River supported a very large spawning population of lake whitefish and it has been almost a century since lake whitefish spawning has been documented in the river.  The fishery collapsed for a number of reasons but spawning habitat loss and pollution were identified as primary reasons for the decline.  At the turn of the century the Detroit River supported huge numbers of spawning whitefish because at that time the river was composed of many braided, shallow channels.  Those historical channels were composed primarily of limestone bedrock, rock and gravel, habitats that are needed for successful spawning by not only whitefish but also many other species of native fish like lake sturgeon and walleye.  Construction of the artificial reef at Fighting Island is one of the first international efforts directed at replacing some of that lost habitat in the river.  The amount of pollution in the river has slowly declined since the U.S. Clean Water Act and U.S. – Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement were both signed in 1972.  Ultimately the goal is to clean up the river and provide adequate habitat that will eventually lead to the re-establishment of species like whitefish and lake sturgeon.

Funding for the research has been provided, in part, by the Service’s Science Support Program, Cost Share Challenge Grant Program, Coastal Grant Program, Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Environment Canada, and the Essex Region Conservation Authority.  The goal of the project is to identify fish use of recently created and historical spawning habitats in the Detroit River and to provide insight about re-creating habitats that were once abundant in the Detroit River.