# Tribe wants to restore sturgeon to Lake Michigan



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Tribe wants to restore sturgeon to Lake Michigan 
Fish considered important to tribal culture

http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/mar/04sturg.htm

By PATRICK SULLIVAN Record-Eagle staff writer 

MANISTEE - Members of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians hope to restock Lake Michigan with a prehistoric fish known for its large size and a back covered with rows of bony plates.
The sturgeon is considered historically important to the tribe and was once a major food source, said Glenn Zaring, tribe spokesman.
"Because of the way the sturgeon have been depleted over the years, we have taken this on as a cultural project, as well as a science project," Zaring said.
The tribe retained a private environmental firm, Northern Environmental Technologies Inc., to provide four portable streamside sturgeon-rearing facilities to be located around Lake Michigan.
The fish may have once been an important food source, but today the species is important because the ancient fish is considered a barometer of the environmental health of the Great Lakes, said tribe biologist Marty Holtgren.
"By evaluating the status of the sturgeon and the rehabilitation of the sturgeon, we're able to evaluate the environment," Holtgren said.
The tribe is working with the departments of natural resources in Wisconsin and Michigan on the project. The facilities will be located on the Milwaukee and Manitowoc rivers in Wisconsin, and on the Cedar and Whitefish rivers in the Upper Peninsula.
The project is funded by a grant from the Great Lakes Fisheries Trust and the facilities are expected to be in place by the middle of April, Zaring said. 
Since 2004, the Little River Band has worked on a separate project to rehabilitate an existing population of sturgeon in the Manistee River.


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Stewards of the land

http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/032306_great_lakes.htm

Stewards of the land
Tribe seeks to boost sturgeon population
By Glenn C. Zaring
Manistee MI
Native American Times
Published March 23, 2006

In an effort to bolster sturgeon populations in the Great Lakes, a Michigan tribe has partnered with a technological company to create four fish-rearing facilities.

The agreement between the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and Northern Environmental Technologies, Inc., will lead to the facilities being installed at locations on the Milwaukee and Manitowoc Rivers in Wisconsin and the Cedar and Whitefish Rivers in Michigan. This initiative is the result of efforts by a number of public and private entities, including the Great Lakes Fisheries Trust; the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The project is funded by a grant from the Great Lakes Fisheries Trust. 

Lake sturgeon was once abundant throughout the Great Lakes. They are ancient and hardy creatures, and individual fish can routinely live to be over 100 years old, with some weighing in at over 200 pounds. Sadly, the quality and abundance of suitable spawning habitat has been diminished. Officials with the Ottawas say they have made the long-term viability of this unique species a priority, and these new facilities are an extension of the tribes ongoing efforts to increase sturgeon populations and reclaim lost spawning habitat. To date those efforts have included research on the population status, furnishing and operating a streamside sturgeon rearing facility on the Manistee River and completion of a feasibility study to evaluate potential habitat reclamation plans for the river. Much more is planned to ensure that future generations benefit from these efforts.

The tribe has been using a streamside rearing facility to increase the number of viable juvenile sturgeon in the Manistee River since 2004. The breeders use streamside larvae rearing, as opposed to offsite hatcheries, in order to imprint the sturgeon with the unique physical and chemical characteristics of the river. This is done to preserve the distinct genetic identity of the rivers spawning population.

The new facilities will carry this technique to rivers in Wisconsin and to Michigans Upper Peninsula. State resource officials in Wisconsin and in Michigan will then take over operation.

In 2004, Northern Environmental, the company the Ottawas are partnering with, designed and built the original streamside rearing facility used by the tribe. The tribes subsequent experience with the facility, and continued collaboration with Northern Environmental, has resulted in numerous improvements and refinements to the process.


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

WI - Back to ancestral waters

The success of a 25-year commitment begun this spring to help restore lake sturgeon to their historic spawning range in the Milwaukee River, while boosting the ancient fish's population in Lake Michigan, rests on the shoulders of Carl John and a handful of other volunteers at Riveredge Nature Center.

Restoring a larger population of this fish, which started swimming on the planet 100 million years ago in the age of dinosaurs, comes with the side benefit of helping to control two invading species - quagga and zebra mussels, said Rob Elliott, a Great Lakes fishery biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Green Bay.

Though sturgeon have no teeth, they do have a crop. That large muscle smashes everything that the fish sucks out of the water or sediment at the lake's bottom, including the nuisance mussels, Elliott said.

Sturgeon are known to spawn in only eight of Lake Michigan's tributary rivers: the Fox, Oconto and Peshtigo in Wisconsin; the Menominee on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan; and the Muskegon, Manistee, Manistique, and Kalamazoo in Michigan.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=424045


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Helping the dinosaurs of fish

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=33010

9-20-2006 By JOE BOOMGAARD Daily News Staff Writer [email protected] 843-1122, ext. 309

BROWN TWP.  In a small white trailer tucked away among plantation pines along the Manistee River, approximately 90, 10-inch sturgeon found out what its like to be in the wild Tuesday. 

Since May or June, the prehistoric fish have been under the care of fisheries biologists from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. The biologists trapped larval sturgeon in nets placed in the river upstream from High Bridge during the late spring sturgeon spawning run and have reared them until theyre large enough to survive in the wild without the fear of much predation, according to Marty Holtgren, inland fisheries biologist for the tribe. 

The project, now in its third year, aims to bolster dwindling populations of sturgeon in Lake Michigan. Holtgren suspects the sturgeon rearing program can boost young-of-year survival by up to 90 percent. He suspects they will remain in the river for a few months before migrating to Manistee Lake or Lake Michigan. 

We dont have enough information about these fish in this stage of their lives, Holtgren said. 

Some of the fish the tribe released are outfitted with radio tracking tags so the biologists can follow their dispersion in the river and gain more data about the fish and their movements. Others are fitted with coded microtags that will allow the tribe to track the release date and site for the fish and hopefully monitor their length and weight, Holtgren said. 

Sturgeon, once so plentiful that they were burned for fuel, are now a rarity, their populations decimated by dams, deforestation, habitat destruction, and overfishing. 

Holtgren estimated only about four female sturgeon spawn in the Manistee River each year. Given that each female only spawns once every 10 to 15 years after they reach 20 to 25 years of age, he said its no wonder the population was easily harmed. 

These fish are genetically distinct, Holtgren said. They return faithfully to this river for years, and we dont want to alter the population. We want to keep the genetics where they should be. 

To ensure the fish imprint to the river, the tanks inside the sturgeon starter are fed with river water pumped in with at about 10 gallons per hour, according to Stephanie Ogren, aquatic biologist for the tribe. 

The system is connected to an alarm that calls the biologists at home if a problem arises. The rearing tanks are also hooked up to oxygen bubblers in the case the water pumps fail. 

The back-up oxygen system makes sure the fish stay alive if the pumps shut down, Ogren said. 

Several participants from the Native American Fish & Wildlife Conference being held at the Little River Casino Resort were also on hand to observe the sturgeon rearing operation. 

John Leonard, a Native American liaison with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services district office in Fort Snelling, Minn., said the project was a great effort for the future of the fishery. 

They have a great opportunity to do things here, Leonard said. The natural resources staff is small, but they do a good job because theyre so dedicated. 

Holtgren said the tribe has been working with fisheries departments in Wisconsin and Michigan and the USFWS to secure grant funding to do similar projects across Lake Michigan. To date, four other sites have been established in the lake basin. 

The release was followed by a traditional drum ceremony and feast at the tribes pow wow grounds.


----------



## glockman55 (Mar 9, 2006)

Good for the Tribe..I'm glad to hear they are putting something back.


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

A search for spawning sturgeon
Study under way in Manistee River

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=35992

JOE BOOMGAARD - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

DICKSON TWP.  A small orange buoy in the Manistee River just upstream from High Bridge Road marks the spot where the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians fisheries biologists are hoping to catch sturgeon eggs.

The site is a known sturgeon spawning area, according to Marty Holtgren, a tribal inland fisheries biologist. He said the tribe set the egg trap in the hopes of counting the number of fertilized eggs from sturgeon to estimate how many sturgeon are spawning in the area. 

When the sturgeon eggs exit the body, they float for five to six seconds before they become adhesive, Holtgren said, after which the eggs stick to nearby objects. 

At the site, the biologists have anchored a furnace filter-like trap to which the eggs adhere. 

We take a count of the eggs and then let them back down to hatch, Holtgren said. 

Holtgren encouraged boaters to avoid the areas immediately around the buoy so the trap is not disturbed and the sturgeon are allowed to spawn. 

(The adult, spawning sturgeon) should be there with the warm temperatures, Holtgren said, adding that fishermen are his prominent source of information of sturgeon locations. 

Great Lakes sturgeon, once common in area streams, are now a rare sight because of historical overharvest and habitat change. They grow to more than five feet in length and can age to be more than 100 years old. 

After the egg study, Holtgren and the other biologists will be back on the river to try to capture larval, or hatched, sturgeon which they will then keep at their sturgeon rearing facility at the Rainbow Bend. 

By September  when the sturgeon reach about 10 inches in length  the tribe will release the fish back into the Manistee River. 

Holtgren said the sturgeon the tribe released last year only spent two to three weeks in the river before leaving the system.

After we released them in the river, they were only there a few weeks and we only found one in Manistee Lake, Holtgren said. They seem to have a quick migrational pattern.


----------



## Ozzman (Apr 12, 2007)

While it is nice that the Tribes are looking to restock the sturgeon, please be aware that world wide stocks of Sturgeon and the product most coveted from sturgeon, Caviar, are in significant decline. So much so that 1 lb of caviar from a river sturgeon here in the US can be worth at least $800 a lb or more! Several poaching incidents have been prosecuted, most recently down by Evansville IN on the Ohio River. Big business, so I would bet the Tribes setup their own harvesting system for caviar as a result of their -restocking efforts!

Ozzman


----------



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Design of a Portable Streamside Rearing Facility for Lake Sturgeon 

North American Journal of Aquaculture 
Article: pp. 317323 Volume 69, Issue 4 (October 2007)

Abstract.A portable streamside rearing facility was designed and used by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians during efforts to rehabilitate a remnant population of lake sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens in the Big Manistee River, Michigan, beginning in 2004. The streamside rearing facility facilitates rearing of wild-caught lake sturgeon larvae in their natal water. This rearing approach provides a cost-effective technique for small batch rearing, incorporates aspects of genetic conservation, and addresses concerns about imprinting and spawning site fidelity. This rearing method may be an important management tool for restoring remnant lake sturgeon populations. Successful rearing of lake sturgeon during the first 3 years of operation indicates that this portable design may be adapted and modified for other locations and fish species. Other management agencies in the Great Lakes basin are currently using this technology for lake sturgeon rehabilitation because of the demonstrated operational success of this facility.

Received: February 17, 2006; Accepted: January 25, 2007; Published Online: August 27, 2007


----------



## frenchriver1 (Jul 5, 2005)

Ozzman said:


> While it is nice that the Tribes are looking to restock the sturgeon, please be aware that world wide stocks of Sturgeon and the product most coveted from sturgeon, Caviar, are in significant decline. So much so that 1 lb of caviar from a river sturgeon here in the US can be worth at least $800 a lb or more! Several poaching incidents have been prosecuted, most recently down by Evansville IN on the Ohio River. Big business, so I would bet the Tribes setup their own harvesting system for caviar as a result of their -restocking efforts!
> 
> Ozzman


IMO the logistics of raising sturgeon for the eggs seems to be akin to mining diamonds on the moon. It's possible, but hardly worth the effort. Sturgeon are big water fish, and the chances of raising a population to enable you many years down the road to harvest wild fish in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile seems highly unlikey... It's not like raising catfish in a pond....


----------



## the rapids (Nov 17, 2005)

i think what they are doing is awsome, hats off to the natives for bringing back a species which has lived on this earth for so long. this is a program that needs to happen on many more rivers in the state.

ozzman- i bet you will see charter captains and guides taking advantage of this fishery long before any sort of harvest by the natives occurs. and i would support their right to harvest the sturgeon once the population can sustain the harvest. it was a source of food for them for thousands of years.

its just too bad the prevailing attitude of "bash the ******" seems to exist on this site. cant give em an ounce of credit, and it makes all of us on this site look ignorant.


----------



## frenchriver1 (Jul 5, 2005)

the rapids said:


> ...its just too bad the prevailing attitude of "bash the ******" seems to exist on this site. cant give em an ounce of credit, and it makes all of us on this site look ignorant.


Agreed! Don't quite understand it...


----------

