In one of the most important conservation events of 2006, the Service christened and commissioned
the M/V Spencer F. Baird on September 7, 2006, at a ceremony in Traverse City, Michigan.

The new 95-foot motor vessel honors Spencer F. Baird, the prominent zoologist who in 1871 first led the U.S. Fish Commission (a forerunner agency to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

The Baird is the long-awaited, one-of-a-kind workhorse for Great Lakes fisheries conservation. Its main goal is to help establish self-sustaining populations of native lake trout, nearly wiped out in the late 1950s due to invasion of sea lampreys, overfishing and pollution.

The Baird will support the ongoing fisheries conservation work by the Service and our valuable Great Lakes partners in native fish restoration, habitat restoration, and sea lamprey and invasive species control.
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