PLEASE NOTE: This is a joint press release under the auspices of the St. Marys River Fisheries Task Group

Member agencies of the St. Marys River Fisheries Task Group will be conducting a fish community survey of the entire St. Marys River during the month of August.

Fisheries biologists and technicians will be setting survey nets at predetermined sites in the river and capturing a variety of species of fish to collect information on abundance, growth, mortality, and size structure. These data will be compared to data collected in earlier surveys.

This survey is an important component of the St. Marys River Fisheries Assessment Plan and is necessary to assist in managing healthy sustainable fish communities and fisheries. The information collected by this and other surveys will assist fisheries managers in Ontario and Michigan in making critical decisions related to sport fish regulations, fish stocking, shared fisheries, and future management goals and actions.

The St. Marys River Fisheries Assessment Plan and the 2006 survey report can be found online at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission website http://www.glfc.org/lakecom/lhc/lhchome.php.

Boaters are asked not to interfere with the nets or their floating markers. Nets will be set overnight and lifted the following day. The well-marked nets should not obstruct normal navigation routes for recreational vessels.

This is the seventh such survey since 1975, but only the fourth done in a cooperative manner by local fisheries management agencies. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) conducted the earlier surveys in 1975, 1979 and 1987 in Michigan's waters only. In 1995, 2002, and 2006, surveys were done cooperatively covering all waters. This year the MDNR is joined by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bay Mills Indian Community, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Lake Superior State University-Aquatic Research Laboratory to survey the river from Whitefish Bay to Detour, Michigan, and south and east of St. Joseph Island, Ontario.