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Lake Sturgeon stream-side rearing facilities

Starting in 2006, Wisconsin DNR, with additional funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, will be deploying stream-side rearing facilities (SRF) (see picture below) for the Milwaukee and Manitowoc/Branch Rivers to raise lake sturgeon. These facilities are needed so that lake sturgeon can be raised on local river water enabling them to imprint to the water as they grow. Once the lake sturgeon are released, they will have a better chance to return to these rivers to spawn than if they were hatchery raised. The SRF’s will be state of the art, mobile trailers, that will house 4 raceways, egg incubating trays, sediment filters, treatment baths and a wet lab. Fertilized eggs will come from Wolf River lake sturgeon in April and transferred to the facilities. Once the eggs hatch, the lake sturgeon will grow throughout the summer and reach about 30g and 200mm before they are stocked in late September.

The proposed facilities are the product of multiple agencies working together to rehabilitate lake sturgeon throughout their former range. Similar SRF’s will be deployed by Michigan DNR on the Cedar and Whitefish Rivers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Both state agencies, working together with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and various Native American tribes, are committed to this project which will entail stocking lake sturgeon using these facilities for the next 20 to 25 years.

Wisconsin, with funding from National Marine Fisheries Service and a contribution from the Milwaukee River Revitalization Council, began its rehabilitation of lake sturgeon in the Milwaukee and Manitowoc Rivers in 2003 when larval sturgeon were stocked. Since then, both fingerlings and yearlings have also been fin clipped and stocked for later identification.

In addition, 20 juvenile/adult lake sturgeon have been transferred from the Wolf River to the Milwaukee River the past three years. These fish have been radio tagged so that information on habitat use and seasonal movement patterns can be collected. Lake sturgeon stocked in 2003 are still being found in the Milwaukee River system and specific areas used by these larger fish are being elucidated. These data will aid the Department in planning future habitat and fish passage projects.