DNR inland fisheries surveys are critical to management

Accumulating key details on Michigan’s entire world-class fisheries is vital for effective administration of our diverse fisheries means. Michigan Office of Pure Assets fisheries management units done over 260 fisheries surveys throughout Michigan in 2021. Particularly, DNR fisheries personnel surveyed 152 inland lakes and 115 streams. 

In general, the surveys disclosed that most of our lakes and streams have healthy, self-sustaining populations of fish.  

The surveys are practical for monitoring inland fisheries populations, assessing if stocking will increase angler options or addressing problems from anglers in the course of the calendar year. 

So, just what are crews hunting for?

According to Jay Wesley, DNR Fisheries Division Lake Michigan basin coordinator, surveys tumble into 3 classes:

1. Assessing administration steps.
2. Comprehending status and tendencies.
3. Discovering answers to new thoughts or issues.

“The management units stepped up final 12 months and securely conducted these surveys to evaluate if management steps, like fish stocking or habitat improvement projects, had the wanted outcome,” Wesley reported. “Surveys aid us recognize no matter if or not our management actions resulted in greater recreational fishing in specific parts or enhanced a lake’s all round health.”

Other annual surveys aid administrators monitor the position and tendencies of fish communities and vital aquatic habitat on distinct lakes, delivering a photograph of the lakes’ ecosystem more than time.

Streams all over the condition are dealt with a small in different ways through two varieties of standing and tendencies surveys: fixed websites and random web sites.

“At fastened web sites, we estimate fish population degrees – usually trout in coldwater streams and smallmouth bass in warmer waters – on a three-year rotation, although random web page surveys give a species snapshot and demonstrate relative abundance,” Wesley explained. “The DNR collects habitat data at all surveyed sites.”

Fisheries supervisors use discretionary surveys to answer queries or tackle latest problems. These can be a little something raised by a area biologist, an angling team or a lake affiliation. These kinds of surveys could be carried out to evaluate habitat suitability for a threatened or endangered fish species and ordinarily account for 50{aa306df364483ed8c06b6842f2b7c3ab56b70d0f5156cbd2df60de6b4288a84f} of the yearly study hard work.

No matter the variety of survey, DNR fisheries managers use the resulting details to strategize administration steps, detect early indicators of invasive species, recognize building threats to fish and habitat well being and significantly additional.

Want to find out about the DNR’s lake and stream surveys, particularly in your component of the point out? Make contact with the fisheries management unit in your space.