Lake trout eggs being incubated by parentage in isolation building

Adult lake trout being removed from nets at Seneca Lake New York FWS photo

More than 5,000 12-inch lake trout future broodstock are settling into their new homes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at the Sullivan Creek National Fish Hatchery (NFH), and in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts at the Berkshire NFH after a 21-hour marathon drive from the Genoa, Wis. NFH this past week.  These valuable fish are the results of a successful 20 month isolation rearing process which verified that they carried no infectious diseases that would have precluded them from being used as captive broodstock in ongoing Great Lakes restoration programs.  This particular strain of lake trout acquired from the Finger Lakes in New York with the assistance of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, is extremely valuable in restoration programs due to its apparent ability to avoid sea lamprey predation.   Sea lamprey predation is one of the main causes of decline of lake trout populations in the Great Lakes, and an ongoing effort to control this invasive species has been successful in allowing lake trout restoration to occur in Lake Superior, and give ongoing lower Great Lakes restoration programs an increased chance of success by ensuring that lake trout survive to reproductive age. 

Staff from Genoa loaded their trucks and traveled more than 1,100 miles non-stop to get their valuable cargo safely to Massachusetts this past week.  After driving all night they were met by Pittsford, Vt. NFH manager Henry Bouchard and volunteers from the Berkshire NFH to offload the fish to their new home.  At Berkshire, the fish will grow and be held until modifications to the Allegheny, Penn.National Fish Hatchery are completed.  When these fish reach reproductive age in 3 years, the egg production from these fish should provide an ample supply of  yearling fish for restoration stocking in Lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie.