The Department of Natural Resources has been working hard this fall, and will continue to this winter, to gather necessary eggs to maintain the production of hatchery fish to support management objectives for Michigan’s world-class fisheries. Fall egg-takes have been completed or soon will start for wild Chinook and coho salmon and for captive broodstocks of brown, rainbow, brook and lake trout.
Chinook salmon eggs were collected during the week of Oct. 5 at the Little Manistee River weir and earlier this week from the Swan River weir near Rogers City. Coho salmon eggs will be collected at the Platte River State Fish Hatchery weir starting Thursday.
“Although we experienced a limited run of wild Chinook salmon this year, we anticipate collecting a total of 3 million eggs from the Little Manistee and Swan River weirs,” said Aaron Switzer, manager of the state fish hatcheries located in the northern Lower Peninsula. “We’re planning to collect around 4.4 million coho salmon eggs at the Platte River weir this week.”
Because of the smaller than anticipated Chinook salmon run experienced this year, all eggs collected will be reared in Michigan. Traditionally, a portion of the eggs have gone to Indiana and Illinois to meet their fish-rearing needs. The two states likely will turn to Wisconsin to obtain quantities instead. Michigan still will provide collected coho salmon eggs to those states, with 2.5 million staying in Michigan and 1 million going to Indiana and 900,000 to Illinois.
Captive broodstock egg-takes for brook and lake trout are in progress until the end of October at the Marquette State Fish Hatchery. Similarly, egg-takes for brown trout are well under way at Oden State Fish Hatchery and will continue until mid-November. That will be followed by rainbow trout egg-takes at Oden starting in December and continuing until mid-January. Captive egg-takes occur every one to two weeks.
Captive broodstocks will provide 220,000 brook trout eggs, 410,000 lake trout eggs, 3.3 million brown trout eggs and 1 million rainbow trout eggs. An additional 640,000 splake eggs (brook trout and lake trout hybrid) also will be collected to support Michigan’s fisheries management objectives.
The public is always welcome to observe egg-take efforts. It is best to call ahead to get the final schedule and to ensure the collection efforts will occur. Scheduling information is available for each egg-take and can be obtained by directly contacting each facility:
The Department of Natural Resources has been working hard this fall, and will continue to this winter, to gather necessary eggs to maintain the production of hatchery fish to support management objectives for Michigan’s world-class fisheries. Fall egg-takes have been completed or soon will start for wild Chinook and coho salmon and for captive broodstocks of brown, rainbow, brook and lake trout.
