Fish-sitters enjoy unique community service

It's that time of year again. Time for the salmon to be released into the AuSable and on to the lakes. The article from the Oscoda Press tells the story of the local imprinting tanks:

Each spring, dozens of area residents volunteer to baby-sit Chinook salmon fingerlings at twin fish imprinting tanks, located at the juncture of Van Etten Creek and the AuSable River, in Oscoda. Lake Huron Sportfishing, Inc. (LHS), which solicits the volunteers and coordinates scheduling, calls it fish-sitting.

In addition to protecting the 497,000 Chinook salmon fingerlings from predators, the volunteer fish-sitters guard against vandalism, water overheating and pump failure. And, they make sure the fish are fed and their environment is kept clean, according to the Alexanders, who also serve as LHS board members.

Fish sitting is a requirement of the partnership between LHS and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). As it does every year, the DNR deliver the fish once they are old enough to make the trip from the Platte River hatchery. Upon arrival, the salmon are piped from the tanker truck into the two side by side concrete pens filled with creek water. The fish remain in the pen until smolt, imprinting Van Etten Creek as their home stream, to which they will strive to return as adults, thus providing the area with a sports fishery. Smolt is the time in a young salmon's life that its biological clock tells it to migrate from its spawning stream to the sea, in this case from the holding pens to Lake Huron, via the AuSable River.

The fish averaged 2° inches in length and were almost black in color when they arrived on May 18. Under the care of the fish-sitters, they have grown to nearly six inches and are beginning to turn silver.

Creek water is constantly pumped into the two fish pens, both imprinting the fish and mimicking a natural environment. During hot weather, the water can become too warm for fish survival. When this occurs, cold groundwater from wells is blended with the creek water, Al said.

After their weeks in the holding pen, they will be acclimated to the river water, healthy and strong enough to evade predators.

Typically, the salmon will spend three to five years in the big lake before they return to reproduce and die, and also to provide Iosco County and the region with an offshore salmon fishery.