Lake Michigan High Island Reef Northern Refuge Lake Trout Post-Stocking Dispersal and Predation Study

HRLAT

August 2024 - July 2027

This project is a collaborative effort between our office, the Green Bay FWCO (Lake Michigan), and the Lower Great Lakes (Lake Ontario) and Alpena (Lake Huron) FWCOs to understand post-stocking survival and dispersal patterns of stocked year 1 lake trout in a multi-year study. We will all be implementing similar arrays and using Innovasea predation tags. For the first year of the study in Lake Michigan we will be deploying receivers at the High Island Reef stocking site in the northern refuge in August 2024, tagging about 100 fish across three lake trout strains in May 2025, and tracking the first round of tagged fish for about a year.

• Determine annual survival of year 1 to year 2 hatchery stocked lake trout and assess for differences amongst genetic strains.
• Better understand dispersal and seasonal movement patterns of yearling stocked lake trout and assess for differences amongst genetic strains.

• Increase confidence in annual survival estimate in northern Lake Michigan lake trout to more accurately model population dynamics.
• Fill in knowledge gap regarding juvenile lake trout movement.
• Improve lake trout stocking practices.

• Sarah Woody (United States Fish and Wildlife Service - Green Bay Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office) - sarah_woody@fws.gov
• Ben Breaker (United States Fish And Wildlife Service - Green Bay Fish And Wildlife Conservation Office)

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Green Bay Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office

• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI)