Michigan fish-sorter has global implications

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By LUCAS DAY
Capital News Service

LANSING — A $20 million test facility used to find how to keep undesirable fish from moving upstream without a dam is coming to the Boardman River.

“I don’t think I’m over exaggerating when I say I think this could help solve a global problem,” said Marc Gaden, the communications director for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

The FishPass system will feature one channel for scientists and engineers to experiment with ways to keep undesirable fish out, while allowing desirable ones in. Another channel acts as a control. 

Researchers will monitor which species of fish pass each channel, telling them which sorting methods are the most effective.

The idea is to find a way to block undesirable species without a physical barrier like a dam. While dams block harmful invasives, they also restrict movement of native species, which limits their reproduction potential, Gaden said.

The channels will be in downtown Traverse City, downstream from a new dam, so undesirable fish won’t invade the Boardman during testing.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission will lead the project. It’s funded mostly by the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, with other agencies contributing.

Scientists and engineers will propose ideas to be tested at FishPass, Gaden said.

Water velocity barriers, light guidance, video shape recognition and eel ladder style traps are some technologies that could be used, according to the commission.

“Right now, what that technology is or what those methods are is only limited by the imagination of scientists and engineers who we’re going to be working with,” Gaden said.

One method that’s been explored at universities and is expected to be tested at the site is pheromone trapping, said Nate Winkler, a biologist with Conservation Resource Alliance, a nonprofit environmental organization in the Northwest Lower Peninsula. 

“That’s exposing a side channel to a sex pheromone to attract males or females into that channel. It’s a dead end, then you trap them,” Winkler said. 

Invasive species, like Asian carp and sea lamprey, that are capable of decimating native fish populations are obvious candidates to be blocked. But what qualifies as desirable and undesirable can become controversial, Winkler said.

In the Boardman, coho salmon and steelhead are popular for commercial fishing but are non-native and consume food resources, hurting native species, he said. Fishery managers must decide whether to block those species as well. 

If a successful sorting method is developed, it could boost native fish populations, Winkler said.

Removing dams and allowing native species access to their full streams give them more space to reproduce and cuts down on competition. It also provides an opportunity to re-introduce native species that died out in rivers, Winkler said.

For example, grayling were run out of the Boardman River by overfishing, exploitation of their habitat by logging and competition from non-native fish. If FishPass is successful, they could be reintroduced to the Boardman, Winkler said. 

While testing costs are high, sorting methods will become cheaper as the technology is established and refined. Lower costs will allow these sorting methods to be used globally, he said.

“That’s the key,” he said. “To make it available to other scientists and managers in other parts of the world, so they can use that silver bullet in their own instances.”

Gaden said a decades-long restoration effort on the river, a diverse population of aquatic species occupying the river and support from Traverse City officials were main incentives to bring FishPass to the Boardman.

Part of the restoration was removing four dams on the main waterway.

“[The dams] were aging and becoming unsafe, no longer producing valuable or reasonably priced energy, so they had essentially become a safety concern and a maintenance cost,” said Amy Beyer. She led a project management team for dam removal on the Boardman and is the director of Conservation Resource Alliance.

Gaden said that while removing the dams had benefits, there was also the risk that without any barriers, sea lamprey would spread throughout the Boardman and decimate fish populations.

The final dam, the Union Street Dam in downtown Traverse City, is scheduled to be taken out in the spring. FishPass construction will take place at the vacant location following the removal.

The Boardman and FishPass will be mutually beneficial as the Boardman acts as an ideal site and FishPass serves as a barrier to sea lamprey, a job the Union Street Dam wasn’t doing well, according to Gaden.

“The Union Street Dam is a leaky, very old dam that does let sea lamprey pass,” he said.

A new park with observation ports will be built nearby. People are encouraged to watch the testing take place and talk to scientists.

“We’ve been very cognitive of the fact that it is a living laboratory,” Gaden said.

FishPass could even act as a tourist attraction.

Winkler said, “I feel like it’s going to be an attraction to locals and non-residents alike, to be able to observe science in action.

While local benefits will occur quickly, testing is anticipated to be a long process. 

Construction of FishPass should take around a year, finishing in spring or summer 2021. After that, it should take five to 10 years to draw results, Gaden said.

Lucas Day writes for Great Lakes Echo.

A rendering of the FishPass project. Credit: Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Invasive species like the sea lamprey could be blocked by new barriers on the Boardman River while allowing native species to pass through. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

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