WISCONSIN’S LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING PROGRAM Prepared: June 2017 By Thomas Burzynski Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 600 E. Greenfield Avenue Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204 PUB-FH-828 2017 WISCONSIN'S LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING SUMMARY Prepared by Thomas Burzynski Lake Michigan Fisheries Work Unit Milwaukee – UW WATER Institute Department of Natural Resources This stocking summary is based on stocking records entered by Wisconsin DNR staff into the statewide propagation database. A stocking record was generated each time hatchery fish were stocked into Lake Michigan. There are four types of information included in this summary report. First, total numbers of trout and salmon stocked from 1963-2016 are summarized. The numbers of trout and salmon that were requested for stocking during the current year (2017) are also included. The actual numbers of each species of fish stocked this year will depend on hatchery program production. The first summary (pages 2 and 3) is intended to provide an overview of long-term trends in the stocking of each species. The last three sets of summaries account for fish stocked during 2012-2016. The second set (pages 4 - 7) focuses on the numbers of fish stocked in each county along the Lake Michigan shoreline in 2012-2016. The third summary (pages 9 - 28) is a set of tables detailing specific stocking sites, the grid location of each stocking site, the specific number and age of fish planted at each site, and any identifying fin clips or marks. The fourth summary (pages 30 - 33) focuses on the marked trout and salmon stocked during the past five years (marked lake trout and steelhead are listed from 2005 and 2008 to the present respectively). Detailed stocking information for 2012-2016 was provided since this year's harvest of all species, except lake trout, will be based primarily on fish stocked in those years. For example, this year's coho catch will depend largely on yearling coho stocked in 2016. The pattern for brown trout tends to be similar to coho. The catches of rainbow (steelhead) trout this year will result for the most part from yearling fish stocked from 2010-2014. Chinook catches this year depend primarily on Chinooks stocked in 2014-2016. The lake trout catch, unlike the other species, will depend strongly on fish stocked in 2009 and earlier. A grid map of Lake Michigan (Figure 1) is included to assist you in locating stocking sites. The ages of fish at time of stocking are indicated as fingerling (F), spring fingerling (SF), yearling (Y), or adult (A). Fin clips are coded as single or multiple clips of the following fins and/or mouth parts: adipose (A), dorsal (D), right or left maxillary (RM, LM), right or left pectoral fins (RP, LP), or right or left ventral fins (RV, LV). The acronym CWT used in the summaries stands for coded wire tag, and refers to fish that have a small wire tag inserted into their snouts. All Chinook salmon stocked in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan were marked with an adipose clip and a CWT as part of a lakewide effort to determine the rates of natural reproduction in Lake Michigan. A diagram of a Chinook salmon depicting fin and maxillary locations is included with the summary (Figure 2). A strain designation code is included in the fin clip column. Strains are coded as Domestic (D), Seeforellen (S), Lake Michigan (M), Arlee (A), Chambers Creek (C) and Ganaraska (G). 2016 Stocking Overview: Lakewide Chinook salmon stocking numbers were reduced by 50% starting in 2013 based on agreements with other management agencies on Lake Michigan. This agreement was forged to balance the number of predators with available prey. The actual number of Chinook salmon stocked in 2016 exceeded our proposed objective of 810,000 by approximately 2,300 fish. The number of brown trout stocked in 2016 exceeded our proposed objective of 836,000 by approximately 185,000 fish. This was due to all of the brown trout at the Thunder River Rearing Station being stocked out prior to that facility closing. Stocking of steelhead exceeded the production goal of 390,000 by approximately 7,000 fish. Coho salmon stocking fell short of our objective of 500,000 by approximately 42,000. Lake trout stocking by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fell short of expectations by approximately 37,000 fish. 1 WISCONSIN'S LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING SUMMARY SPECIES YEAR BROOK BROWN CHINOOK COHO LAKE1 STEELHEAD TIGER2 1963 9,000 1964 15,000 1965 205,000 25,000 1966 38,000 761,000 59,000 1967 9,000 48,000 1,129,000 85,000 1968 25,000 252,000 25,000 817,000 104,000 1969 34,000 132,000 66,000 175,000 884,000 169,000 1970 18,000 183,000 119,000 332,000 900,000 143,000 1971 69,000 208,000 264,000 265,000 945,000 168,000 1972 70,000 811,000 317,000 258,000 1,284,000 618,000 1973 50,000 558,000 757,000 570,000 1,170,000 661,000 1974 34,000 435,000 616,000 318,000 971,000 495,000 34,000 1975 61,000 362,000 825,000 453,000 1,054,000 508,000 15,000 1976 19,000 298,000 1,175,000 667,000 1,045,000 1,010,000 23,000 1977 623,000 798,000 872,000 492,000 970,000 673,000 28,000 1978 243,000 1,228,000 2,017,000 499,000 994,000 616,000 1979 185,000 955,000 2,064,000 320,000 943,000 1,133,000 1980 185,000 1,063,000 2,430,000 492,000 1,255,000 1,167,000 SPLAKE3 1981 200,000 1,014,000 1,848,000 318,000 831,000 965,000 1982 245,000 1,841,000 2,345,000 216,000 1,022,000 1,042,000 1983 297,000 1,588,000 2,432,000 356,000 720,000 1,404,000 20,000 1984 225,000 1,185,000 2,892,000 551,000 736,000 1,381,000 34,000 1985 307,000 1,170,000 2,740,000 522,000 1,589,000 415,000 54,000 1986 188,000 873,000 2,378,000 267,000 1,394,000 782,000 115,000 1987 95,000 838,000 2,263,000 624,000 1,066,000 544,000 0 1988 +497,000 1,050,000 1,409,000 1,020,000 736,000 291,000 29,000 1989 +150,000 973,000 2,714,000 511,000 1,827,000 495,000 0 1990 315,000 1,229,000 2,379,000 498,000 700,000 461,000 0 1991 326,000 982,000 1,735,000 403,000 1,009,000 587,000 147,000 1992 272,000 1,229,000 1,523,000 569,000 1,323,000 569,000 0 1993 294,000 1,333,000 1,600,000 0 633,000 679,000 40,000 1994 269,000 1,261,000 1,549,000 457,000 758,000 798,000 71,700 1995 328,000 1,325,000 1,688,000 722,000 581,000 553,000 0 1996 167,794 1,301,118 1,726,957 563,588 685,000 565,980 69,912 1997 114,530 1,279,830 1,706,116 514,712 670,850 569,950 40,000 1998 297,705 1,252,035 1,729,799 513,894 745,850 531,032 22,000 1999 179,169 1,226,947 1,467,955 529,224 717,701 518,851 40,000 2 WISCONSIN'S LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING SUMMARY SPECIES YEAR BROOK BROWN CHINOOK COHO LAKE1 STEELHEAD SPLAKE3 2000 44,580 1,231,807 1,487,771 484,662 682,046 520,810 40,000 2001 89,500 1,197,502 1,502,607 512,774 778,470 600,525 28,471 2002 50,388 1,365,896 1,419,303 595,491 620,110 610,617 28,509 2003 23,877 1,080,538 1,614,700 540,145 724,774 758,275 22,086 2004 0 1,021,711 1,502,885 474,465 743,190 430,601 43,859 2005 0 967,114 1,474,456 515,978 713,493 553,861 16,259 2006 0 994,914 1,166,185 437,744 830,647 578,444 40,028 2007 0 1,010,111 1,112,562 643,065 714,652 705,064 44,272 2008 0 966,278 724,545 282,910 1,015,513 536,510 0 2009 0 934,420 995,804 344,471 930,671 636,329 0 2010 40,546 735,472 1,234,994 345,464 738,549 446,247 0 2011 0 704,604 1,127,444 433,196 866,095 436,381 0 2012 0 722,541 1,175,213 542,192 703,349 398,520 0 2013 0 726,096 802,061 383,339 819,360 410,919 0 2014 0 588,629 823,222 421,100 824,530 409,121 0 2015 0 820,954 823,496 539,129 809,103 432,665 0 2016 0 1,020,852 812,270 457,884 712,377 397,162 0 Proposed 2017 0 362,000 810,000 450,000 300,000 390,000 0 1Federally produced fish. 2Brook X Brown Hybrid. 3Brook X Lake Hybrid. +In addition to the above, 17,000 Atlantic Salmon (Landlocked) were stocked in 1988 and 30,000 were stocked in 1989. 3 2012 LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING SUMMARY COUNTY BROOK BROWN CHINOOK COHO LAKE STEELHEAD KENOSHA 0 49,583 157,854 34,600 0 25,092 RACINE 0 54,557 112,616 86,121 27,216 54,029 MILWAUKEE 0 119,153 99,804 42,376 7,176 45,780 OZAUKEE 0 41,488 83,646 64,119 400,069 5,801 SHEBOYGAN 0 61,294 83,918 63,563 203,128 35,525 MANITOWOC 0 105,128 129,200 37,557 0 55,631 KEWAUNEE 0 65,179 132,243 198,364 15,000 104,083 DOOR 0 132,330* 226,842 15,492 50,760 43,518 OCONTO 0 93,829 0 0 0 0 MARINETTE 0 0** 58,283 0 0 12,801 TOTAL 0 722,541 1,175,213 542,192 703,349 398,520 2013 LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING SUMMARY COUNTY BROOK BROWN CHINOOK COHO LAKE STEELHEAD KENOSHA 0 53,271 74,996 14,310 0 4,719 RACINE 0 51,955 75,046 83,608 24,450 86,627 MILWAUKEE 0 70,713 74,655 14,348 0 31,172 OZAUKEE 0 43,474 63,488 41,011 309,900 36,437 SHEBOYGAN 0 66,783 63,593 30,892 309,358 17,743 MANITOWOC 0 91,581 91,964 9,817 0 57,838 KEWAUNEE 0 92,634 91,855 180,023 124,505 95,461 DOOR 0 162,800* 185,297 9,330 51,147 52,818 GREEN BAY 0 90,324** 0 0 0 0 OCONTO 0 0 61,164 0 0 12,427 MARINETTE 0 2,561 20,003 0 0 15,677 TOTAL 0 726,096 802,061 383,339 819,360 410,919 4 2014 LAKE MICHIGAN SALMONID STOCKING SUMMARY COUNTY BROOK BROWN CHINOOK COHO LAKE STEELHEAD KENOSHA 0 50,225 77,463 18,760 0 26,882 RACINE 0 47,330 76,933 79,080 139,650 56,723 MILWAUKEE 0 54,446 83,414 18,886 0 57,102 OZAUKEE 0 44,486 90,076 45,393 309,492 4,663 SHEBOYGAN 0 44,358 86,337 64,807 310,388 34,729 MANITOWOC 0 76,804 85,205 13,970 0 59,232 KEWAUNEE 0 61,389 99,477 152,039 15,000 98,391 DOOR 0 160,914* 153,617 28,165 50,000 43,100 GREEN BAY 0 48,577** 0 0 0 0 OCONTO 0 0 42,249 0 0 12,602 MARINETTE 0 0 28,451 0 0 15,697 TOTAL 0 588,529 823,222 421,100 824,530 409,121 * 36,079 Seeforellen yearlings stocked through the ice at Stone Quarry/Green Bay side of Door County.