Final Post

As I stated in the beginning, this blog was an assignment for my environmental studies class at Western Michigan University.  It was a great project for me.  I had never written a blog before so it was a new experience that I am happy to have had. 

I was able to write about a topic that interested me and I learned a great deal when I conducted research for my posts.  The Michigan DNR website is a  great resource for those interested in all aspects of Michigan natural resources not just fish. I wished I would have started researching this topic earlier in the semester. I found out that our Sleeping Bear Dunes campsite was only a few miles from the Platte River Fish Hatchery.  If I had known it then I would have swung over and checked it out.

Even though I enjoyed blogging I will not be continuing this blog. Time management is the primary issue for discontinuing my blog.  I have spent several hours of research for each of my fish related posts and with my other commitments continuing this blog would be difficult.  Fun should be the word that goes along with a blog you do for yourself not difficult.  So, when my college career is over I might take up blogging  as a hobby.  This is it for my blog, I hope someone enjoyed reading it or at least learned something from it.

Michigan Fisheries Division and Sustainability

Accessed from Michigan.gov website

Michigan has six fish hatcheries two in the upper peninsula and four in the lower peninsula.  Michigan DNR is instrumental in sustaining Michigan native fish populations. 

In 2011 the DNR stocked 14,565,641 in Michigan inland lakes, streams and Great Lakes.  Over 14 million fish released that were reared in just six state hatcheries.  The 2011 Fisheries Accomplishment Report states that these fish were released to "re-establish lost, create new, enhance existing, and rehabilitate depressed fisheries."  These 14 million fish were stocked at 661 different sites. 

All six hatcheries have hours when they are open to the public.  Even when it is not visiting hours you can still access the trails located on the hatchery lands.  There are several miles of trails with public access.  The hatcheries also have visitor centers that include information on species, habitat, and watersheds.  I have only visited one hatchery myself and that is the Wolf Lake Hatchery located in Mattawan.  At this hatchery there is a show pond that has a dock that you can walk out on and feed the fish.  My family goes there a few times a year to feed the fish and walk the trails.  



Wolf Lake Hatchery photo accessed from Michigan.gov website

 

The picture to the left shows the Wolf Lake show pond. The building seen in this picture is the picture is the visitor center.  The hatchery holds tours where you can take a look behind the scenes to see the actual operations that take place.  This is a great educational trip for everyone.  My son especially enjoys seeing the eggs at the different stages of development.  There are also many events that take place at the hatchery throughout the year.

Producing fish for replenishment is not the only goal of Michigan Fisheries.  Habitat is also a focus.  In 2011 the DNR Fisheries Division was involved in 17 dam removal projects that produced 167 miles of rehabilitated stream habitat.  Ten other projects were successful in reconnecting 161 miles of river and stream habitats.  This is huge in helping species that have been damaged due to population isolation. 

 

The Fisheries division has many more responsibilities than just stocking fish and managing habitat but they are too many to go over in this posting.  Some number that are really impressive is that there are only 165 full-time and 40 seasonal employees working in the Michigan Fisheries Division.  With so many lakes, rivers, and streams to manage and doing it successfully with so few employees that is fantastic.  Michigan has 205 employees in the Fisheries division yet sport fishing in Michigan contributes over $2.5 billion annually to Michigan economy.  So if you are out fishing and a DNR officer stops and asks to see your license give him or her a thank you for all they do to sustain our native fish populations. 

 

Accessed from Michigan.gov website

 

 

 

Brief History of Michigan Fish Management

Digital post card from Michigan DNR website

In 1873 the Michigan Fish Commission was formed; this was the precursor to today's DNR.  At this time fish populations were greatly decreasing.  The decrease was due to dams which hindered fish movement, pollution, and over fishing.  The logging industry was the reason for this era of dam building.  The pollution had many causes.  Over fishing was due to no regulations of catch limits.

The Fish Commission had focused on fish production.  There was no political push at this time for habitat conservation or stopping mass overfishing.  The only available option at the time was hatcheries.  The hatcheries of the time focused on food fish as opposed to today's hatcheries focus on sport fish species.  About 92% of hatchery fish during this period were lake whitefish.  The technology of the time did not allow for raising past the fry development stage so there was only limited success.

By the Great Depression sport fishing was established and the transition was made from food fish to sport fish.  Species produced at this time were brook, brown and rainbow trout and a few other warm water species.  Technology advanced and fish were now produced to the fingerling stage which lead to greater success.  Post WWII there was more leisure time and the Great Lakes were greatly polluted so the hatcheries started producing legal catch size fish.  This was a huge expense and did nothing to fix the habitat and pollution which was the real problem.

In the late 1960s the public push came for pollution clean up.  Water quality greatly improved and this marked the change to the modern era of fish management in Michigan.  Legal catch fish production was changed to fingerling and yearling fish production.  Hatchery fish are now used to restore lost fish populations, help depressed populations, and ecosystem balance.  This ends my brief history post and my next post will be on Michigan fish hatcheries today and their part in sustaining Michigan fish populations.

Carbon Footprint

For this posting I looked into my family's greenhouse gas emissions.  I used the EPA's household footprint calculator to calculate my household and my cousin's household carbon footprints.  The calculator was easy to use and the link to it is at the end of this post.  If you would like to know the mathematical formulas for these calculations I have provided a link for that also.

If you are wondering what exactly what is a carbon footprint here is the definition from the EPA's website:

Carbon footprint:  The total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization, or company. A person's carbon footprint includes greenhouse gas emissions from fuel that he or she burns directly, such as by heating a home or riding in a car. It also includes greenhouse gases that come from producing the goods or services that the person uses, including emissions from power plants that make electricity, factories that make products, and landfills where trash gets sent.

There are three people living in my household and the calculator showed our usage to average 18,547 pounds of carbon dioxide per person.  My cousin's household has two people and their usage averaged to 12,183 pound per person.  The average emissions per person in the United States is 20,750 pounds per year.  The item causing the difference in our households is the fact that my husband drives from Kalamazoo to Middleville for work daily. He racks up almost 500 miles driving weekly.  My cousin and her husband are retired and the farthest they go is from Kalamazoo to Portage.  My husband's job is not going to be moving closer to Kalamazoo but he is in need of a new vehicle.  Currently he drives a minivan which gets 19 mpg.  If we replace his vehicle with one that gets 24 mpg the calculator show we would reduce our carbon emissions by 5,647 which is 10% of our total emissions.  This seems like the way to go since I can't reduce his drive time.

My cousin installed an energy efficient furnace and more insulation this year and it is making a big difference.  Her house is about 1500  sq ft. larger than mine yet her monthly gas for heat usage is 6.6 Mcf and mine is 11.3 Mcf. What she saves in gas she uses in electricity.  My family changed over many of our appliances to energy star rated.  It seems to make a difference in comparing my electric use to my cousins.  Her usage is 900kWh and mine is 625kWh.  That is a big difference. 

Another difference is that my cousin doesn't recycle anything and has no interest in starting.  My family recycles or reuses most everything we can.  One thing that is the same is that both our families are below the U.S. average emission.  I was happy to see that.  This was a good learning experience.  Knowing a quantity an actual number of how much replacing one vehicle for a more fuel efficient vehicle will make is useful.  Getting a more fuel efficient car is one way to reduce my family's carbon emissions.  I think we also need to look into better home insulation.  This carbon footprint comparison was a good learning experience for me.

EPA household greenhouse gas emissions calcuator link : http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/ind-calculator.html

EPA clean energy calculations and reference link:  http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/refs.html

Eurasian Water Milfoil

Photo: Alison Fox, University of Florida

Eurasian water milfoil is an invasive plant found throughout Michigan inland lakes and low energy streams and rivers.  This plant was introduced by the aquarium trade.  The Eurasian water milfoil is an aquatic perennial that grows 3-10 feet in length and forms dense mats. 

This plant can cause a few different impacts on native fish species.  It can  disrupt the predator prey relationship. The large dense mats keep out larger fish reducing their food supply.  Another problems this plant can cause is that when it becomes dense it can lead to algae blooms.  Algae blooms  can lead to deoxygenation of water which leads to fish kills.


Photo: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut


There are a few ways to control this plant.  The herbicides work but they also kill native plant species.  Removing the plants by hand is effective  but slow and costly.  Mechanical harvesters can "mow" back the plants.  None of these are good solutions and the infestation is only reduced not stopped.
 

Copyright © 2006 Claude Pilon

What seems like a better solution to me would be what was done in Lake Ovid in Sleepy Hollow State Park in Clinton County.  There the  Euhrychiopsis lecontei, or milfoil weevil was introduced.  Which is a native insect that usually eats the native variety of milfoil.  This weevil was introduced into Lake Ovid in 2006.  With an initial introduction of 24,000 weevils spread in six different regions of the lake.  Within a month you could visibly see a reduction in the Eurasian water milfoil.  The weevil has spread on its own to other parts of the lake and has resulted in a significant reduction of milfoil.  Although the weevil did not completely eliminate the milfoil it has brought it under control.  This weevil has been introduced into other lakes and has produced similar results.  This is a great sustainable eco-friendly solution to the problem. My sources for this post came from the Michigan DNR and MSU websites.  Weevil picture from bugguide.net.

Global Warming

The focus of this post will be on Bill McKibben's book eaarth Making Life on a Tough New Planet. In this book McKibben shows that global warming is not a future problem for our children and grandchildren.  It is a current problem a problem here and now.  It is also a problem that we created ourselves.  The first two chapters of the book have a very doom and gloom feeling.  It is an in your face explanation of how we created the global warming problem ourselves and the little that has been done to slow, let alone stop, or even reverse the carbon emissions. 

I have never doubted global warming or that it was caused by human activities.  I've seen the weather pattern changes over the past three decades here in Michigan.  The seasons come and go but summer has gotten hotter, and winter milder weather is shifting.   The hot temperatures fried my lawn this  summer,  but the roses I have in my yard were still blooming last week.  In the past my lawn rarely turned brown and crunchy to walk on and the roses never use to bloom past mid October.  The snow that fell in December use to stick around until February.  Now when it snows my son goes out to play in it immediately because it might all melt away in a couple of days.  It reminds me of something I heard growing up, "It's Michigan if you don't like the weather wait five minutes and it'll change."  It's not just Michigan though it's global weather change.

Global warming is changing habitation for Michigan native fish species.  The average annual ice coverage on the Great Lakes has declined by 72% fro 1973 to 2010.  Ice coverage is needed for native fish species.  The warming of Michigan waters will lead to a shift in fish population.  There will end up being reduced number of cool water species like whitefish and sturgeon, and more warm water species such as bass.  Michigan DNR report published September 2012 titled "Climate Change Adaptation Plan for Costal and Inland Wetlands in the State of Michigan" I found it interesting since it ties in McKibben to my topic.  The following map was also in this report  and here is the link in case anyone would like to read the report: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/Michigan_Wetlands_and_Climate_Change_Report_Final_Final_403251_7.pdf

Figure 1 - Michigan Climate Migration - Source: Union of Concerned Scientists

Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS)

VHS is a virus that has been found in the Great Lakes from 2003 to present.  This virus causes fish to hemorrhage and death is usually caused from internal organ failure. All five Great lakes are currently infected with VHS.  Fish infected with VHS can die in the thousands and it effects a wide variety of species.  A few species involved in large kills include muskies, yellow perch, and bluegills. Several other species have been infected but there has not had large die offs. Some of these include Chinook salmon, walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, channel catfish, lake trout, and rainbow/steelhead trout.  Over twenty-five Great Lakes native species are infected by VHS.  Photos below are of different species of shad infected with VHS. 



Photo: Andy Noyes, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Dept.



Photo: Mohamed Faisal, Ph.D., Michigan State University

Different strains of VHS are found throughout the world infecting both fresh and salt water fish.  The strain in the Great Lakes is believed to have originated in Maritime Providences in Canada.  Original sources into the Great Lakes could have been from untreated ballast water, or infected migratory fish.  VHS has also been found in some inland lakes.  The following map shows the infected areas within the United States Great Lakes Region.  Canada data is not included in this map.

Map: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS) Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health (CEAH)

One way this virus is spread through through fish waste it can survive in the water outside of the host for several weeks.  Large die offs usually occur during spawning season when populations are more concentrated.  Although this disease has made its way throughout the Great Lakes there is hope.  Biologists believe like most viruses this one will run its course.  Fish that survive VHS and their offspring appear to be more resistant to the virus.  This leads me to believe that immunity to VHS is beginning to appear in the population.  Please watch this educational video about VHS put out by the USDA and the APHIS. (Animal Plant Health Inspection Service) 
 

References:
http://ftp.great-lakes.net/envt/flora-fauna/invasive/pdf/vhs_glc_factsheet_2011.pdf
http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/home/Default.aspx?tabid=531
http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/library/factsheets/fisheries/fish_health/Viral%20Hemorrhagic%20Septicemia%20Virus/Andy%20Noyes%20-%20VHS%20-%20Gizzard%20Shad.jpg