The Great Lakes are ecologically significant on a worldwide scale, as they contain 20 percent of the world's fresh water. The State of Michigan, which includes 43 percent of the Great Lakes, has a considerable responsibility in the protection, management, and rehabilitation of this important fresh water resource. The mission of the Division, which reflects our trustee responsibilities, is to protect and enhance the public trust in populations and habitat of fishes and other forms of aquatic life, and promote optimum use of these resources for benefit of the people of Michigan. The Fisheries Division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources operates four research vessels on the Michigan waters of the Great Lakes for purposes of investigating, monitoring, and evaluating the status of the aquatic habitat and fisheries resources of these waters. The four research vessels (Alpena / Chinook, Charlevoix / Steelhead and Pimephales, Marquette / Judy, Lake St. Clair / Channel Cat) are essential to fulfill the Division's constitutional and statutory responsibilities as the trustee for the preservation of the public trust resources in the Michigan waters of the Great Lakes.
Work performed by the vessels in the Michigan waters of the Great Lakes includes evaluation of movement patterns, survival rates, age and growth, natural reproduction rates, and diet for the major fish stocks. Discrete fish stocks are identified, geographically and biologically, and annual forage biomass estimates of the Great Lakes are made in cooperation with other agencies. The vessels contribute to the process of evaluating stocking success to determine stocking density, size, time, techniques and strain performance to maximize survival and return to creel for a given cost. Further, fish are collected for contaminant analysis to assess the potential risk to public health from consumption of fish from the Great Lakes. Data collected by the vessels are used to determine effects of sport fishing regulations and evaluate habitat alterations on fish communities. Data are also used to develop and test models that predict effects of regulation changes, predict the influence of aquatic exotic species on fish communities, and to partition the fisheries between sport, commercial, and tribal harvest. Management plans that include fish community objectives for major fish stocks are developed using data provided from our research vessel collection efforts and other research vessels across the Great Lakes (Great Lakes Association of Science Ships).
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