The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( Service) and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (Community) invite the public to attend a fish transfer and ceremony celebrating the success of a two year Agreement for the Community to operate a fish health isolation facility which plays a key role in efforts to restore lake trout in the Great Lakes Region.
Those attending the ceremony, 11 a.m. June 22, will have an opportunity to observe Community and National Fish Hatchery staffs load approximately 6,000 lake trout for delivery to Iron River National Fish Hatchery, Wisconsin, and Pendills Creek National Fish Hatchery, Michigan.
John Christian, Assistant Regional Director for Fisheries, said, The lake trout and brook trout restoration effort in the Great Lakes will continue successfully thanks to cooperative efforts of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. Fish hatcheries play an important role in achieving mutual benefits for interjurisdictional fishery resources and lake trout restoration efforts. Midwestern tribes have responded to the challenges of resource management in their unique role as users and managers of more than 900,000 acres of reservation inland lakes, treaty ceded territories and the Great Lakes. Their contributions are vital toward restoring these fish species and are greatly appreciated.
Dale Bast, Hatchery Manager, Iron River National Fish Hatchery, said, This agreement fosters the continued integration of fish health and fish genetics into the Services captive broodstock broodstock
The reproductively mature adults in a population that breed (or spawn) and produce more individuals (offspring or progeny).
Learn more about broodstock program. We need disease-free broodstocks that represent the genetics of wild fish. The Keweenaw Bay Indian Fish Hatchery first initiated a two-year cooperative program in September 1995 and renewed it in 1997. Under the 1997 agreement, the Community provided fish isolation facilities for wild lake trout eggs from Klondike Reef (Michigan ), Traverse Island (Michigan) and Apostle Islands (Wisconsin). During the past two years the Community has successfully reared lake trout through the required disease clearance period which included 3 separate fish health inspections.
According to Bast, The project was once again completed by the community with excellent results. The three strains of lake trout yearlings that were being held in isolation were given the very best of care and, now that a pathogen-free disease history has been established, these fish will be transferred from the Keeweenaw Bay Community Hatchery to the Iron River and Pendills Creek National Fish Hatcheries, Bast said. There they can be safely used for further egg production and the subsequent fingerlings will then be used to meet restoration stocking efforts throughout the Great Lakes basin.
The cooperative agreement also includes the production of 100,000 lake trout yearlings at the Iron River National Fish Hatchery and 7,000 brook trout from Genoa National Fish Hatchery (Wisconsin), all supporting the fish stocking priorities of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
Wayne Swartz, Tribal Chairman, said, Our agreements with the Service have further enabled us to cooperate in native fisheries restoration in the Great Lakes. The Community is pleased with the results of these agreements and looks forward to working with the Service on other natural resource projects.
Christian noted, This agreement with the Community is vitally important to meet the demand for new broodstocks until a long-term solution for isolation needs is achieved. Also, it supports the Department of the Interiors trust relationship with tribal government. And, equally important, the agreement will help us keep healthy lake trout in the Great Lakes for all of the people of the region to enjoy.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Fish Hatchery is located in Michigans Upper Peninsula on the LAnse Indian Reservation, about 7 miles northeast of LAnse, MI on Pequaming Road.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprising more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries and 78 ecological services field stations.
The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://www.fws.gov/r3pao/
