Lake Sturgeon Project

Little River Band of Ottawa Indians

Lake Sturgeon Project Report: LRBOI 2017-1

Annual Report of Lake Sturgeon Research and Reclamation Activities: 2016.

Photo of sturgeon being collected and removed from the river during nighttime sturgeon visual surveys for protection from sea lamprey treatment chemicals.

Suggested Citation:

LRBOI 2017. Annual Report of Lake Sturgeon Research and Reclamation Activities: 2016. Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Report 2017-1, Manistee, MI.

Prepared by: Corey Jerome, Fisheries Biologist

2016 Annual Report

Executive Summary:

The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians (LRBOI) Natural Resources Department has

intensively evaluated and managed the Big Manistee River lake sturgeon population for 15

years. The LRBOI sturgeon program aims to meet the goals and objectives of the Nmé (Lake

Sturgeon) Stewardship Plan which was implemented in 2007 (LRBOI 2008). A major element of

the plan, and thus the sturgeon program, is to use culturally derived principles along with

biological information during sturgeon restoration. The LRBOI operates a streamside rearing

facility (SRF) which integrates both of these elements; where young sturgeon are carefully

collected in the Big Manistee River and placed in rearing tanks where they are raised with natal

river water and released when large enough to experience higher survival (Holtgren et al.

2007). Rearing fish in their natal waters occurs to facilitate imprinting of the sturgeon so as

adults they will return to those waters to spawn and preserve the unique genetics of the

population (Welsh et al. 2010). Another program component is to monitor population status

including year-class recruitment, survival, and genetics through conducting nighttime visual

surveys. As with every year since 2003 the LRBOI held a ceremony in September where people

from the Manistee and regional community released streamside reared sturgeon by hand back

into the Big Manistee River. For each of the 13 release ceremonies the LRBOI and friends have

realized a major goal toward stewardship and are restoring the harmony and connectivity

between Nmé and the people and bringing them both back to the river.

Sturgeon Egg Collection:

Egg mats were set for the collection of lake sturgeon eggs on 25 April 2016 at Old Bridge

Pool in the Big Manistee River (Figure 1), the lower of two known spawning sites (Chiotti et al.

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2008). No mats have been set at an upper historic sampling site, Suicide Bend, since 2010

because of high angling pressure (Figure 1). Each set consisted of 20 cinder block egg mats set

in gangs of two (Chiotti et al. 2008). Egg mats were checked at least twice weekly Monday and

Thursday or three times weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Egg mats were pulled

from the river on 23 May 2016. Forty (±0.00 SD) egg mats were deployed per day for a total of

672.25 hours of sampling. During this time there wasn’t any documentation of sturgeon

spawning at Old Bridge Pool. While the lack of documentation doesn’t mean that spawning

didn’t occur as sampling effort was limited due to limited staffing availability. In previous years

documented spawning has occurred as late as the 9th of June which was in 2014.

Larval Drift:

Larval drift was conducted for the 15th consecutive year at Sawdust Hole in the Big

Manistee River (Figure 1). Index nets have been set annually beginning in 2002 in order to

monitor and compare abundance of drifting larval sturgeon. Additional nets (SRF nets) are set

to increase abundance of larval sturgeon for rearing within the SRF. Drift surveys were

conducted between 26 May and 8 June with the first larvae captured on 30 May and the last on

2 June. The first larval drift event occurred from 30 May through 2 June. A second drift peak

was not observed this year, but the lack of documentation of a second drift doesn’t mean that

one didn’t occur because larval drift sampling was ended earlier than normal due to staffing

constraints. Larval lake sturgeon have been seen as late as 21 June and, second drift peaks have

been observed during 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2015. Abundance of larval sturgeon was

found at the third lowest amount in the 15years at 49 with the highest abundance occurring in

2010 at 726. Catch per unit of effort (CPUE) of larval sturgeon in index nets was 0.337 fish/net

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hour which was below the average of 0.491 (±0.437 SD) fish/net hour over the 15 year sampling

effort. Even though the total number of larval sturgeon captured during sampling was the third

lowest amount over the history it was the 8th highest CPUE throughout sampling because of the

shortened sampling period.

Sturgeon Visuals Index Surveys:

Visual surveys to capture Age-0 and Age-1 sturgeon have been conducted since 2003.

Since 2008 location of survey sites have been standardized using nine fixed index sites (Mann et

al. 2011) that extend from Rainbow Bend to High Bridge Road (Figure 3); though for the 2016

sampling season only eight index sites were sampled. Visual surveys are conducted using a

boat and slowly motoring upstream while scanning the river bottom with spotlights. Index sites

were surveyed once on 22nd August and 14-15 September. During the August survey total of 13

age-0 and one age-1 wild lake sturgeon were captured with length averaging 192 mm TL (±12.8

SD) and 360 mm TL. Fish encountered during the August survey were removed from the river

and held in the SRF until after the completion of a sea lamprey treatment. All index sites were

sampled on the same night to limit a bias in sampling due to the removal of the sturgeon from

the system. For more details on the removal and sea lamprey treatment assessment see section

titled: Sturgeon Visual Surveys/removal in Conjunction with Sea Lamprey Treatment. Visual

surveys CPUE was calculated across sites for August 2016 was 1.44 (±3.6 SD) which is slightly

lower than the August average from 2008-2016 of 1.64 (±2.7 SD) during 2008-2016 (Table 1).

The standard deviation is larger due to 11 of the 13 fish were captured within site 9. During the

September survey a total of 7 age-0 wild lake sturgeon were captured with length averaging

213 mm TL (±15.0 SD). Of the 7 fish captured on September 14 4 of them had been previously

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captured during earlier visual survey assessments. Limited number of sturgeon seen and the

high recapture rate during the September survey was probably highly affected by the sea

lamprey treatment.

Sturgeon Visual Surveys/removal in Conjunction with Sea Lamprey Treatment

The Manistee River was treated to reduce the number of larval sea lamprey on 29-30

August before they can transform and migrate to Lake Michigan for their parasitic life stage.

During past Sea Lamprey treatments on the Manistee and Muskegon Rivers it has been

determined that juvenile sturgeon are susceptible to mortality during these treatments. With

this new understanding a collaborative effort was put together to survey the Manistee River

the week leading up to the sea lamprey treatment for the collection and removal of juvenile

sturgeon to be held within the SRF until after the treatment was completed. The removal

nicknamed Save-Our-Sturgeon (SOS) was done with the aid of Michigan Department of Natural

Resources and US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Surveys were done nightly from 22nd through 28th of August and a post sea lamprey

treatment surveys done on 30th of August and 14th of September. During the pretreatment

surveys no assessments were done on the night of the 27th due to inclement weather. Total

number of crews on the water nightly ranged from 4 to 1 with an average of 3 crews surveying

nightly (Table 2). Assessment areas were focused on known locations where juvenile sturgeon

inhabit based on the above detailed indexed sites. Additional areas were sampled within the

river where conditions allowed sampling and habitat seemed conducive to sturgeon use.

A total of 117 sturgeon were removed from the Manistee River and held in the SRF

through the duration of the sea lamprey treatment. Fish were kept separated based on river

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section of collection to aid in the release back into the river. The majority of the sturgeon (62)

came from the middle section of the river between the landmarks of Orchard’s Landing and

Ebel’s (Table 3, Figure 4).

During the time the treatment chemical was in the river the SRF stopped pulling fresh

river water into the facility and was put on a closed loop. During this time an issue was noted

within the facility when three wild collected and one SRF reared fish were observed dead. The

issue was remedied by stopping the recirculation of the closed loop water and increased

aeration of the water within the tanks. Shortly after making the changes fish behavior seemed

to become more normalized than when the system was circulating. The majority of sturgeon

were released back into the Manistee river on the 1st of September within the same river

sections of capture. Seven sturgeon were held until September 17th when they were released

during the annual sturgeon release ceremony. These few fish were captured in the stretch of

river where the release ceremony is held and since the facility didn’t produce any sturgeon for

the rearing season were used for a representation of the work done towards sturgeon recovery

for the 2016 season.

A post sea lamprey treatment assessment was conducted on 30th of August and 14th of

September with 4 crews on the river sampling the same river sections as were sampled

pretreatment. The September 14th assessment was also a part of standard index sampling as

mentioned above with additional river segments sampled that is outside of the indexed

protocol sampling. Therefore there are some differences in capture totals for the same night of

sampling. During the August post treatment survey a total of 13 dead sturgeon were sampled

with one live age-0 sturgeon sampled. The one live lake sturgeon that was sampled post

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treatment was also sampled during the September index visual survey meaning that it had

survived weeks past the treatment. An additional 3 fish during the September post treatment

survey were new fish that hadn’t been sampled previously. A total of 15 fish were captured

during the September post treatment assessment. This might mean that if a sturgeon can

survive through the sea lamprey treatment that they are likely to survive long term, but it is

unknown if there are any long term effects of the treatment on these individuals. The post

treatment assessment in August was limited in duration due to inclement weather that came in

around midnight. The assessment was limited to searching the river to areas that the river

bottom is visible unlike typical sturgeon visual surveys this post treatment assessment dead

sturgeon could be found in all types of habitat due to them tumbling in the river current. Some

dead sturgeon were found trapped along logs and vegetation while others were actively

tumbling down river in the current. Additional dead sturgeon were probably missed if they

were trapped in deeper water or obstructions that would limit observations.

SRF Sturgeon Rearing:

Larvae (wild captured) were reared in fry tanks and raceways, depending on size

(Holtgren et al. 2007). Fish were fed a diet of brine shrimp Artemia franciscana and chironomid

larvae. During larval drift 49 larvae were brought into the SRF for rearing until fall when they

are released during an annual release ceremony. This year during the rearing of the larval

sturgeon there was an unknown die off of larvae that resulted in the majority of larval sturgeon

dying during a 5 day period in the middle of June. Some mortality has been noted in past

rearing years around this timeframe but total numbers of larval sturgeon in the facility have

buffered the lost. With a limited number of larval to start the rearing year with this mortality

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event resulted in there being only one sturgeon that was being reared in the SRF. The

remaining sturgeon was involved in a mortality event during the recirculation of water in the

SRF during the sea lamprey treatment. If not for this mortality event that was a mechanical

issue the sturgeon should have made it till the annual sturgeon release. This was the first year

in the history of operating the SRF that there has been a complete loss of larval lake sturgeon

brought in from eggs or drift. Corrective actions have been made to limit adverse effects from

mortality events and mechanical issues going forward. While the SRF has been put into a

recirculation before this year a new slightly larger water pump was used which is believed to

have caused the introduction of increased gasses within the water. For future recirculation

setups a smaller pump will be used since the recirculation is for short term a smaller pump can

be used without issues with it failing and not increasing gasses within the water.

As mentioned in the above section 117 wild sturgeon were brought into the SRF for a

short period of time due to the river being treated for sea lamprey. Most of the fish were

released back into the Manistee River after the treatment was completed, while seven fish

were held for an additional two weeks to be a part of the annual sturgeon release ceremony.

Genetic Analysis:

Genetic samples of streamside reared and wild captured Big Manistee River lake

sturgeon from 2005-2014 were analyzed by Michigan State University. Outcomes of the

analysis include understanding the parental contribution of spawning sturgeon and an estimate

of the effective spawning site. Genetic estimates show that the effective adult population size

over the 10 year period was ~137 and the total number of adults contributing to larvae

captured was ~347. Within each spring spawning the estimate of effective number of breeding

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adults was fairly constant but relatively low ranging from 17-48. The estimates of effective

number of adults are slightly above the recommended restoration goals for a single annual

cohort of hatchery-reared juveniles (Ne~20; Welsh et al. 2010). The full report titled 2005-2014

LRBOI Manistee River Sturgeon report is an unpublished internal document to help guide

management practices and assess progress towards the restoration of the Manistee Lake Sturgeon

population.

Public Outreach:

SRF tours occurred throughout the season as interested citizens would stop at the

facility while staff was onsite. Staff would take the time to explain the current stages of growth

and collection methods, daily procedures, and mention the release ceremony.

A few new releases were published about the efforts put forward towards the

protection of juvenile sturgeon during the sea lamprey treatment. While some of the releases

focused on some of the negative effects on salmonids during the sea lamprey treatment they

included the positives that were seen from removing sturgeon from the river so that they

weren’t exposed to the chemical treatment.

Several newspaper articles covered the LRBOI sturgeon program, including the Rapid

River News (weekly LRBOI news), the Currents (LRBOI monthly paper), and local and regional

newspapers.

Great Lakes Juvenile Indexed Assessments

Since 2013 LRBOI has been conducting juvenile sturgeon assessments with targeted

sampling efforts around the mouth of the Manistee River in Lake Michigan and in 2016 the

Muskegon River mouth was added to the assessment. Sampling effort is 2 sets within each

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zone of 0-2 km (inner zone), >2-5 km (middle zone), and >5-10 km (outer zone) from the

tributary mouth. Each set consists of two gangs of gill nets to form a continuous net of 304.8 m

containing stretch mesh of 11.4, 20.3, and 25.4 cm. Sets are left for 24 hours or one net night

with CPUE reported as number of fish per net night per 304.8 m of net.

Sampling at the Manistee River mouth was done on September 19th and 28th with 4 net

sets being able to be completed the 5th and 6th set didn’t occur due to inclement weather

during the sampling period that didn’t allow for the boat to get out. Sets were done with one

net in the inner zone, two in the middle zone, and one in the outer zone. Surface water

temperature ranged from 20-17.2°C and net set depths of 3.9-9.5 m. Three sturgeon were

sampled during the 2016 assessment two from the inner zone set and one from a middle zone

set (Figure 5). Sturgeon lengths were 406, 762, and 413 mm. Bycatch has been limited with this

assessment to under 25 fish total per net and hasn’t caused any concerns to need to change

sampling protocol to limit bycatch. None of the sturgeon were recaptured fish so they received

a PIT tag and were released in good health. CPUE for the 2016 assessment was .75 fish per net

night/set.

During October third and fourth test assessment was conducted at the Muskegon River

mouth with four nets set with one net in the inner zone, two nets in the middle zone, and one

net in the outer zone. Since this was an exploratory sampling a second set within the inner and

outer zone weren’t completed with this sampling effort, but if continued in future years

sampling effort would be equal across all zones. Water temperatures during ranged from 16.1-

17.2°C and net set depths of 4.4-7.7 m. During this test assessment nine sturgeon were

sampled with five in the inner zone, four in the middle zone, and zero in the outer zone (Figure

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6). CPUE for sturgeon was 2.25 fish per net night/set. Unlike the Manistee River mouth

assessment the bycatch at the Muskegon River mouth was very high and causes concerns to

the ability to continue the assessment in future years. Bycatch consisted of sucker species,

walleye, freshwater drum, and catfish. The difference in bycatch is hard to know if it is because

of a difference in location and productivity as the capture of sturgeon were also increased over

the Manistee location. Sampling protocol will have to be monitored in the future in relation to

bycatch if it remains high an alternative sampling protocol may have to be implemented. One

example could be instead of a 24 hour net set could be a 10-12 hour net set as has been done

at other sampling locations in Lake Michigan with high bycatch rates.

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Citations: Chiotti, J. A., J. M. Holtgren, N. A. Auer, and S. A. Ogren. 2008. Lake sturgeon spawning habitat in the Big Manistee

River, Michigan, USA. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28:1009-1019.

Holtgren, J. M., S. A. Ogren, A. J. Paquet, and S. Fajfer. 2007. Design of a portable streamside rearing facility for

lake sturgeon. North American Journal of Aquaculture 69:317-323.

Holtgren, J. M. 2013. Bringing us back to the river, pp. 133-146 In N. Auer and D. Dempsey [eds.], The Great Lake

Sturgeon. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, Michigan.

Mann, K.A., J. M. Holtgren, N. A. Auer and S.Ogren. 2011. Comparing size, movement and habitat selection of wild

and streamside-reared lake sturgeon. North American Journal Fisheries Management. 31(2):305-314

Mitchell, J. 2013. N'me, pp. 21-26 In N. Auer and D. Dempsey [eds.], The Great Lake Sturgeon. Michigan State

University Press, East Lansing, Michigan.

LRBOI (Little River Band of Ottawa Indians). 2008. Nmé (Lake Sturgeon) stewardship plan for the Big Manistee

River and 1836 reservation. LRBOI Natural Resources Department, Special Report 1, Manistee, Michigan.

LRBOI. 2013. Mortality of Age-0 Lake Sturgeon Post-Sea Lamprey Treatment in the Big Manistee River, Michigan.

LRBOI Natural Resources Department, Special Technical Report August 2013, Manistee, Michigan.

Welsh, A., R. Elliott, K. Scribner, H. Quinlan, E. Baker, B. Eggold, J. M. Holtgren, C. Krueger, and B. May. 2010.

Genetic guidelines for the stocking of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) in the Great Lakes basin. Great

Lakes Fishery Commission, Miscellaneous Publication 2010–01, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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Table 1. Sturgeon Visual Sites captures for August (# sturgeon/survey reach) 2008-2016 (n=1).

Index Site 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

2013 2014

2015

2016

1 0 0 0 8 4 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 1 2 1 2 0 1 3 0 0 2 1 1 3 2 1 0 4 0 1 17 3 2 1 1 8 0 5 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 1 0

6 0 0 0 0 0

0

0 Not

Sampled

0 7 0 0 7 2 2 0 6 2 0 8 2 0 2 1 1 1 1 3 1

9 3 0 3 0 3 2 4 1 11

Total 5 1 36 14 16 9 19 16 13

Table 2. Sturgeon Visual surveys date, survey crews and total sturgeon collected before the sea lamprey treatment.

Date Survey Crews

Sturgeon collected

22-Aug 3 15 23-Aug 4 15 24-Aug 3 37 25-Aug 3 27 26-Aug 3 15 27-Aug 0 0 28-Aug 1 8

Table 3. Sturgeon visual surveys distribution of sturgeon collected before the sea lamprey treatment

Distribution of collections (downstream to upstream) Sturgeon Collected

Below Rainbow Bend 1 Rainbow Bent up to Bear Cr. 5 Bear Cr. up to Orchards Landing 24 Orchards Landing up to Ebel’s (below Blacksmith Landing) 62 Below Blacksmith Landing to 1 mile above Highbridge 25

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Figure 1. Big Manistee River with lake sturgeon sampling locations.

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Figure 2. Timing of lake sturgeon spawning within the old bridge pool of the Manistee river from 2006-2016. No documentation of LAS spawning occurred in 2016, but sampling was cut short due to staffing complications. X-axis is month/day.

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Figure 3. Big Manistee River visual survey index sites.

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Figure 4. Manistee River landmark names used when describing stretches of river for sturgeon visual survey fish

removals.

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Figure 5. Lake sturgeon sampled at the Manistee River mouth during index netting by zone and year sampled.

Figure 6. Lake sturgeon sampled at the Muskegon River mouth during test assessment of index netting by zone for

2016.

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2016 2016 2016

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