Michigan Arctic grayling’s reintroduction effort nearing major milestone in 2025

An Arctic grayling at Montana’s Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.(Image courtesy of Andrew Gilham, USFWS)

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    Michigan will officially reintroduce Arctic grayling back into the environment after more than a hundred years since the species disappeared from the state
    
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    400,000 eggs taken from Alaska will be divided among indigenous tribes in Northern Michigan who will place them in three different rivers
    
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    Years of research and preparation, along with new technology and research from abroad is informing the effort
    

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  Michigan will officially reintroduce Arctic grayling back into the environment after more than a hundred years since the species disappeared from the state
  
• 
  400,000 eggs taken from Alaska will be divided among indigenous tribes in Northern Michigan who will place them in three different rivers
  
• 
  Years of research and preparation, along with new technology and research from abroad is informing the effort
  

(FOX 2):It has been over a century since an Arctic grayling was captured in Michigan waters. Due to severe pressures from industrialization, overfishing, and predation, the cherished fish went extinct.

The local fishers’ previously unattainable ambition could now become a reality thanks to years of planning, millions of cash, new inventions, and unprecedented collaboration among nearly 50 partners.

Michigan has come the closest to returning Arctic grayling into its streams this year. Additionally, years of effort will continue even after the eggs harvested in Alaska are released into pre-selected streams in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Because of this, even the most experienced fishermen in Michigan are waiting to see what happens next.

“Perhaps they perform admirably. It might be a first. “It may only be effective in two or three locations,” stated Bryan Burroughs, executive director of Michigan Trout Unlimited. He has heard that even the most hopeful individuals have tempered their expectations for what might occur next.

“Are they going to live? That is a challenging proposition.

Restablishing Arctic grayling: Planting a flag

Overview:

When people moved to Michigan in the early 1800s, Arctic grayling started to decline. However, the state’s logging industry’s ravenous desire was what ultimately doomed the fish species.

While an uncontrolled fishing industry made life impossible, nonnative species outcompeted the Arctic grayling as waves of floating logs changed rivers, destroying habitat and altering water temperatures.

Alex Ontkos, an inland fisheries biologist with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, described the situation as a “perfect storm” of uncontrolled fishing and environmental changes.

The Manistee River is one of three rivers chosen as potential future habitats for Arctic grayling, and Ontkos and the Ottawa Indians are spearheading the restoration project there. Thousands of eggs will be laid by his team starting in May in a number of housing units known as incubators that will be situated along a two-mile section of the river’s North Branch.

Ed Eisch, DNR fisheries chief, holds an Arctic grayling.(Image provided by Ed Eisch.)

New technologies, lessons learned from earlier missteps, and a deeper comprehension of the fish they are attempting to establish inform the strategy.

“This isn’t just one of the bigger things in fishery science in the state of Michigan, it’s one of the biggest things in fishery science in the U.S.,” stated Ontkos.

Michigan has attempted to reintroduce Arctic grayling before. The last attempt before 2025 stopped in the early 1990s when the fish introduced to streams vanished.

This version dates back to 2016, when DNR biologists first proposed the idea. Achieving a self-sustaining population would be a “planting flag” moment for Michigan, according to Ed Eisch, assistant director of the department’s fisheries division, who was there when the most recent endeavor was conceived.

“We obviously went the wrong direction back then – but we’ve turned it around and are seeing much better water quality than 50 years ago,” he stated. “It’s a beautiful fish and (reintroducing it) would show how far we’ve come in improving our water.”

Reintroducing Arctic Grayling: A science experiment

The backstory

When developing their plan, Michigan officials looked to the west for inspiration.

The DNR has previously nurtured Arctic grayling in a controlled setting before releasing them into the wild. This obscured an important phase of the species’ early life cycle,

When they hatch, many fish must leave their mark on their environment. Their birthplace’s distinct chemical signature will serve as their home, and the sights and sounds will aid in locating it.

Fish eggs can be housed in the Remote Site Incubator until they hatch, at which point they can swim out.(Alex Ontkos provided the photos.)

Eisch attributed the connection to Montana officials.

“We’re just scratching the surface of what imprinting in fish means,” he stated. We now know that it occurs in grayling, but it also occurs in many other species, including northern muskies, walleyes, and lake sturgeon. That was figured out by the people in Montana.

With a little modification, Michigan is also adopting Montana’s practice of storing the eggs in incubators. Water from the river is channeled into the device using five-gallon buckets and PVC pipes in the original incubator. The fry swim out of the incubator and into the river when the eggs hatch.

In certain places, the identical method would require hundreds of feet of plumbing because Michigan streams aren’t as steep as Montana’s.

DNR fisheries researcher Troy Zorn stated, “It would take half a mile of plumbing to do what they’re doing in Montana, which is kind of a problem.” “So we tried some other ways and eventually turned to YouTube.”

They discovered a video that demonstrated an alternative method of nurturing fish eggs.

The Arctic grayling reintroduction strategy uses a submerged basket rather than a five-gallon bucket that is fed by a flowing river. After experimenting with rainbow trout eggs in the modified incubator, scientists discovered success.

The container used to house Arctic grayling eggs in Montana has been modified to become the Floating Basket Incubator (photo courtesy of Troy Zorn).

Look more closely:

Michigan chose to import the arriving Arctic graying eggs from Alaska and store them at the DNR’s fish hatchery in Marquette, even though Montana is closer.

After that, the group will be divided into three groups, each headed toward a distinct river that will be supervised by a particular indigenous tribe:

The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians at the Boardman-Ottaway River, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians at the Maple River, and the Ottawa Indians at the Manistee River.

Arctic grayling had previously been found in each of the selected rivers when the species was self-sufficient, supported by the local population, and under the watchful eye of the corresponding tribes.

The duty of distributing over 400,000 eggs within their chosen river will fall to each tribe. Over the next two weeks, they will keep an eye on the eggs.

“Once they hatch, they’ll swim up into the river and be fending for themselves and be in the big world all alone,” Ontkos added.

The timing is right

What they’re saying:

The idea “caught fire” with hundreds of groups and individuals who eventually cooperated on the project when the DNR began considering possibilities, according to Eisch.

State departments, universities, fishing federations, conservation organizations, U.S. Senators, and high schools were among the supporters.

Despite their enthusiasm, the project’s organizers were aware that financing would be one of the main obstacles. Due to limited funding, the DNR has had to rely on private funding and donations from charitable organizations to support its operations.

Iron Fish Distillery, located in the northwest of the state, has provided assistance in the form of small donations and major grants. Proceeds from whiskey batches featuring labels created by Dani Knoph, an artist from the Great Lakes, are donated by them.

Troy Anderson, the distillery’s chief marketing officer, stated, “It is consistent with our values of responsible stewardship of natural resources.” “The opportunity to be involved in something that could result in the successful reintroduction of a native species is right up our alley.”

The project has raised almost $25,000 thanks to three distinct bourbon and rye whiskey offerings.

Charles Wilson, a board member of the Henry E. N. Consuela Wenger foundation, is one of the other donors.

The first pot of money from the foundation went to a Michigan State University Ph.D. student researching competition and predation of Arctic grayling, which would eventually inform which rivers are best suited to house the desired fish.

Iron Fish Distillery unveiled this batch of rye whiskey in honor of the Arctic grayling effort. It features artwork by Dani Knoph, a painter of Great Lakes fauna.(Photo courtesy of Troy Anderson.)

Wilson was drawn to the effort because of his interest in environmental issues. But his experience has also taught him to temper his expectations about the effort.

“I always say, there are no guarantees this time around that these efforts will result in a self-sustaining population of grayling, but I think we have a reasonable chance of success,” he said.

What is success?:

Whether the fish survive will be an open question for years. The first to hatch won’t reach sexual maturity for up to seven years. By then, the endeavor will have stretched into 2030.

But, whether the fish are self-sustaining by then is the wrong benchmark for measuring success, Michigan Trout Unlimited’s Bryan Burrough says.

The way he sees it, the project’s success has less to do with whether the fish are established and more about what those involved learn from both the initiative’s achievements and its failures.

“The only way you screw up is if you don’t learn from it,” he said. “The effort in the 70s was considered a failure, but because they failed to learn why they didn’t succeed.”

Instead, the way Burroughs sees it, the most important thing that can happen is to learn from what unfolds and apply those lessons to future work.

The Source:Information from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was used in reporting this story.