Friends of the Upper Mississippi

By Doug Aloisi, Genoa NFH

Winter is typically a time where the hatchery staff can begin to repair the damage to our buildings and equipment, as well as add improvements that our maintenance staff would not be able to do during the production season. This winter was no exception, with maintenance necessary to equipment crucial to the operation of our offsite mussel rearing trailer. Also included was the installation of a new iron filter for removing iron from culture water before it is used on our walleye egg incubation battery. This raises the capacity of our previous iron filter by over 300%, which will allow us to increase water flows within the system to reduce fungus growth and increase egg survival. Also included within the system is the installation of a three phase pump with a variable frequency drive, which should save on the hatchery’s electric bill this coming spring. The station’s mussel trailer is a good object lesson on how hard life can get in a trailer down by the River. It started its life as a converted tool trailer back in 2009. In 10 years the flooring was developing soft spots and one of the interior walls was harboring a fungi species. After its 10th season in the field, the floor was fixed, walls were purged of mold and fungi and painted and new waterproof LED lighting was installed. Culture and UV systems were also maintained and readied for the coming spring deployment. The trailer is deployed at a local Corps of Engineers Campground which is adjacent to the mighty Mississippi. The River is the trailer’s water source, bringing with it the tiny microscopic particles the young mussel larvae need to survive, and is crucial to the success of Genoa’s mussel program. Now the only thing needed is the changing of the season. Even with the snow cover, the days are growing longer, and the staff is growing more anxious to put their new and renewed equipment through its paces. Come on spring!

As part of a multi-agency effort (Toledo Zoo, USFWS, USGS, Ohio DNR, Michigan DNR, University of Toledo and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) lake sturgeon have been released for two consecutive years (as part of a 25-year stocking plan) into the Maumee River, a tributary of Lake Erie. A sturgeon trailer was deployed near the Toledo Zoo in 2018 to raise 1500 lake sturgeon on Maumee River water and for 1500 fish to be reared at Genoa National Fish Hatchery on hatchery supply water. To date 3,000 lake sturgeon have been stocked from the Genoa (WI) National Fish Hatchery. The project calls for paired releases of sturgeon from both locations for 25 years to reach a target self-sustaining population. Once fish are 6-8 inches at both locations, they are tagged with a PIT (passive integrated transponder) tag to monitor future growth, survival and adult returns during spawning. In addition, 40 fish from 2018 and 40 from 2019 were implanted with acoustic transmitters to track juvenile lake sturgeon movement, habitat use, and survival in the Maumee River and migration into Lake Erie. This data will be used to do address questions: 1) Do Lake Sturgeon reared in traditional or stream-side hatchery facilities show similar short-term survival rates after stocking? 2) Do juvenile Lake Sturgeon reared at traditional and stream-side facilities show similar post-release movement behaviors, and what type of habitat do juvenile Lake Sturgeon use after release? The acoustic transmitter project will go into 2020 to address these questions. To date sturgeon released in the Maumee River from both rearing locations (Toledo Zoo and Genoa) have made their way out to the western basin of Lake Erie. Also, an exciting bit of news just reached biologists this fall from a commercial fisherman operating in the western Lake Erie basin. He captured one of the stocked lake sturgeon from the 2018 year class. It had already reached a size of 18+ inches and after checking its PIT tag number, its origin was found to be from the Genoa facility. Pretty exciting news: a lake sturgeon travelled as egg from the east coast of Michigan (St. Clair River, to Wisconsin’s beautiful west coast as a larvae/fingerling (Genoa NFH) to juvenile release in the Maumee River, now traversing as a sub adult in the western basin of Lake Erie. One of our babies is growing up fast and making a name for itself! By: Orey Eckes

Hatchery biologist, Nick, and volunteer, Debbie, meticulously pick out stickleback minnows from fathead minnows. Photo by Orey Eckes/USFWS.

We were able to finish up harvest of the Fathead Minnow pond in December. We brought in over 2.6 million minnows! Many of these went into overwintering ponds to sustain broodstock and future mussel host fish over the winter. We also brought some inside to be used for feeding other fish on station. Not all of these minnows are destined to be a meal for a bigger fish, however. Using a grader, which separates bigger fish from smaller ones, we set aside tens of thousands of the biggest minnows we had. These lucky ones will go back out to the pond in the spring, their only goal being to produce millions more for next year. Unfortunately, there are some unwanted friends lurking within. Brook Sticklebacks frequently infiltrate the minnow pond and reproduce themselves. They are not as desirable a meal for fish as Fatheads, and the reason why is hidden in their name. This is where the volunteers come in. With their help, we are able to go through every minnow that will go back into the minnow pond and remove the sticklebacks. Hopefully that action combined with a good winterkill in the pond will result in a better food source for 2020. We couldn’t do it without the help of our volunteers! By Nick Bloomfield
Genoa National Fish Hatchery’s mission is to recover, restore, maintain and enhance fish and aquatic resources on a basin-wide and national level by producing over 35 aquatic species of varying life stages, participating in active conservation efforts with our partners, and becoming a positive force in the community by educating future generations on the benefits of conservation stewardship.
Interpretive Center Winter Hours
Monday-Friday: 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday:
CLOSED