Operating the Boardman River Weir is the next step in Traverse City’s new fish passage agreement.
The Great Lakes Fishery Commission is working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to learn more about native species like sucker fish.
Samples will be collected this spring to help with research for the future of FishPass.
“This is probably the first project where it’s a little bit more multi-faceted as far as the relationship between fish in the river—what they do in the river and what they do out in the lake,” says MDNR Fisheries Management Biologist Heather Hettinger.
Traps will be placed both upstream and downstream of the weir to capture and tag the fish.
Fishing from 300 feet upstream to 300 downstream of the weir is prohibited while it’s operating.
The DNR says this study will help biologists better understand the movement of white and longnose suckers.
“They’re actually a really important group of fish to the overall ecosystem, but because they’re not popular, because they’re not a game fish, like a bass, or a steelhead, or a salmon, they haven’t been well studied, so this is a really good opportunity to work together with a few different agencies and get some of that information,” says Hettinger.
The Boardman River Weir plans to begin operating as soon as temperatures warm up this week and will go until the end of May.
To learn more about native and invasive species in the Great Lakes, you can visit .
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