Angler assistance needed for Muskegon River whitefish study

Do you fish the Muskegon River between Croton Dam and the river mouth at Lake Michigan? This fall you might see in the channel lake whitefish carrying acoustic telemetry tags and acoustic receivers for tracking the fish.

The devices are part of work the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and partner organizations will be conducting to determine whether rivers like the Muskegon could serve as alternative spawning areas for lake whitefish, a species facing steep population declines in lakes Michigan and Huron.

Anglers in the Muskegon River area are asked to release any tagged whitefish they catch and report any they harvest to assist with this effort. Please reach out to the DNR’s Scott Heintzelman (HeintzelmanS@Michigan.gov, 231-433-9782) or The Nature Conservancy in Michigan’s Matt Herbert (mherbert@tnc.org, 517-316-2283) if you have a tag or if you see damage to one of the receivers.

Anglers, boaters and others on the water should avoid moving receiver stations that are in the river. These devices are strategically placed to collect tag information without creating navigational issues.

Lake whitefish is a native species that is important ecologically, culturally and economically in Michigan and the Great Lakes region. Threats such as habitat loss, pollution and invasive species — especially quagga mussels — have changed the food web in lakes Michigan and Huron, threatening juvenile whitefish survival and causing the recently observed decline in populations.

“Lake whitefish stocks have declined dramatically since a peak in the 1990s, with commercial catches and yield currently at their lowest levels in three decades,” said Herbert, senior conservation scientist with The Nature Conservancy’s Great Lakes Sustainable Fisheries Program.

As part of ongoing efforts to conserve the species, a cooperative project involves evaluating whether lake whitefish are able to use rivers to spawn. If they can, that could open up new habitat for the species and help mitigate decline.

The project is led by a team of representatives from the DNR, The Nature Conservancy, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community and Grand Valley State University.

The tagging process

This November, adult lake whitefish will be tagged and stocked in the Muskegon River. The acoustic tags, approximately the diameter of an AA battery or permanent marker, will be attached near the fish’s dorsal fin. Receiver stations, which collect data from the acoustic tags as fish swim by, are anchored on the bottom of the river at multiple locations between Croton Dam and the river mouth.

“There are historical accounts of lake whitefish spawning runs in rivers throughout the Great Lakes,” Herbert said. “We are trying to encourage the lake whitefish to re-establish their spawning behavior here so that juvenile whitefish can hatch and grow in this environment where they have a more plentiful food supply than in the Great Lakes. We hope this work will ultimately aid in the recovery of the whitefish populations.”

If you catch a tagged lake whitefish, please release the fish alive, if possible. This will allow the team to continue to collect data from the fish.

Learn more about lake whitefish and recovery efforts by visiting The Nature Conservancy’s Great Lakes Fisheries page or the DNR’s lake whitefish webpage.

Note to editors: Accompanying photos are available below for download. Caption information follows.

• Muskegon River receiver locations: Acoustic telemetry receiver stations will be located along the Muskegon River. Image courtesy of The Nature Conservancy in Michigan
• Acoustic tag: Acoustic telemetry tags are attached to fish near their dorsal fins. Photo courtesy of The Nature Conservancy in Michigan.
• Receiver station: Acoustic telemetry receiver stations along the Muskegon River will collect data from tagged fish. Photo courtesy of The Nature Conservancy in Michigan.

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