Hitting New Lows With Local Salmon

For the first time in more than a decade, Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials are collecting roe (eggs) and milt (sperm) from coho and chinook salmon on-site at the Boardman fish weir off Hall Street. Hatcheries that stock salmon in streams and rivers in the region are running low on eggs.

It’s another symptom of declining salmon population in the Great Lakes. Over the years, there has been a steady decline in the number of salmon harvested at the Traverse City facility – from a bumper crop of 18,425 in 2011, to 7,050 (in 2012), to just under 4,000 (in 2013). Officials hope this year’s numbers equal last year’s production of 1,800.

Major infestations of zebra and quagga mussels in Michigan waters have resulted in a food deficit which, according to DNR Educator Dennis Hewitt, “affects the quality and size of the salmon population.”

The harvesting operation, which is expected to last as late as the end of this month, draws a steady crowd of onlookers each fall. DNR officials are on-hand to explain the entire process; several school groups have toured the facility.

The fish stocked by area fisheries mature, go downstream and end up in Lake Michigan. They mature over a three- or four-year period, return to their river of origin to lay eggs and then die. However, the weir – a line of heavy grates across the Boardman – keep the salmon from going upstream where, in a more natural process, they would eventually spawn.

“With dams upstream, warmer water, and a lack of good gravel (where eggs are laid), the Boardman is not very suitable for natural spawning process,” Hewitt says. That lack of habitat explains why most salmon eggs are fertilized at the weir or, more often, at a hatchery. The salmon raised at the hatchery are released into the upper reaches of the Boardman when they’re 3-4 inches long.

Some natural spawning still occurs on the Boardman. “Those are the ones who make it through before or after we put up the weir,” Hewitt says.

Another reason for the harvest is that the salmon usually die within 24 hours of spawning. If left uncontrolled, that process could lead to thousands of dead salmon on the shores and in the waters of the Boardman, something few townspeople would find appealing. “Out in wooded, remote areas, that wouldn’t be such a problem, but in town, it is,” says Hewitt.

Trout have it easier. When captured at the weir, they are returned to the river unscathed to continue traveling upstream.

Returning salmon, almost all of which are very near of end of their life cycle, are trapped, killed, put on ice, and sent to a American Canadian Fisheries Corporation plant in a former cherry processing facility in Bear Lake. There, they are cleaned and flash frozen. Those in the best condition can be used for human consumption. Virtually all of the remaining useable portions of the fish are processed into marketable products such as pet food.