Lake Michigan Lake Sturgeon Movement in Lake Michigan and the Menominee River.

LMLSM

October 2014 - January 2019

This project was initiated in 2014 to evaluate behavior of lake sturgeon after passage above the two lowest dams on the Menominee River, a tributary to Green Bay. Better spawning and rearing habitat are available to sturgeon above these two dams. The goal of this passage effort is to increase recruitment from the Menominee River and to increase lake sturgeon abundance in Green Bay and Lake Michigan. To date, acoustic tags have been implanted into more than 150 lake sturgeon and information from these fish has demonstrated fish remain above dams to spawn and then generally return downstream. Telemetry has also been used to refine operation of the fish elevator in Menominee Dam to maximize capture of lake sturgeon for passage. Currently, telemetry is being used to inform genetic parentage analysis of larval lake sturgeon to determine if fish passed upstream are contributing offspring.

• Daniel Isermann (Wisconsin Cooperative Fishery Research Unit) - dan.isermann@uwsp.edu
• Michael Donofrio (Wisconsin Department Of Natural Resources)