Now in St. Joseph is the Michigan Department of Natural Resources research vessel, the Steelhead.
The 65-foot vessel was built in 1968 and travels along the coast of Lake Michigan every year to study fish populations. DNR Charlevoix Fisheries Research Station Manager Patrick Hanchin tells us the team aboard the ship is looking at a few things.
“It’s called our Standard Lakewide Assessment, which is a protocol that’s used by all management agencies on Lake Michigan,” Hanchin said. “It is essentially a spring survey to assess the status of lake trout, whitefish, fish, perch, and burbot.”
Hanchin says they do this all along Lake Michigan, stopping in places like Saugatuck, South Haven, Grand Beach, and St. Joseph.
“Basically at each port we set six gill nets of various mesh sizes. These are bottom gill nets. They’re about six feet tall, about 1,600 feet in length, and they’re set at different depths perpendicular to shore.”
They study the weight and length of the fish, take at look at what they’ve been eating, and look for lamprey wounds.
The information gathered could be used to shape harvest quotas for commercial fishing, regulations for recreational fishing, and fish stocking. The team will also go as far as 40 miles out into Lake Michigan to run other tests.
Hanchin says similar work is taking place in the other Great Lakes.
