Sturgeon migrating up Milwaukee River, sensor system shows

In one other step ahead for fisheries administration on the Milwaukee River, final week a sensor array detected 5 lake sturgeon transferring upriver.

The “hits” had been the primary on sturgeon because the high-tech system was put in throughout the river backside in July 2021, in accordance with the Division of Pure Sources.

“It is undoubtedly thrilling,” stated Aaron Schiller, DNR fisheries biologist who helped set up and screens the array. “This confirms (the sensor) is engaged on sturgeon and it is doing what it is designed to do.”

The array is a everlasting, cross-stream system to detect fish implanted with passive built-in transponders (PIT) tags. It is put in 4 miles north of the river mouth and upstream of the outdated North Avenue dam website.

The PIT tags are the dimensions of a grain of rice and work very equally to the “chips” put into canine and cats.

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The expertise carries a singular 15-digit quantity and hyperlinks to information on tagging date, location, species and size and weight of the fish when dealt with.

One PIT tag has been injected into every of the roughly 19,000 younger sturgeon raised on the Riveredge Nature Middle and launched into the Milwaukee River or harbor since 2006 as a part of the restoration venture referred to as Return the Sturgeon.

The DNR has additionally implanted the tags in an assortment of different species of fish within the Milwaukee, together with northern pike, brown trout, brook trout, steelhead (rainbow trout), redhorse, suckers and walleye.

As a result of its a number of sensors spaced throughout the river backside, the system can even decide if a fish is transferring upstream or down.

Though sturgeon, together with a PIT-tagged fish, had been noticed within the Milwaukee River final spring, the sensor system had not but been put in and fisheries crews and sturgeon advocates have been intently watching this 12 months for indicators of a possible spawning migration.

The distant design is preferable as a result of it’s miles extra environment friendly for scientists and it does not require fish to be netted or dealt with, thereby eliminating threat of injuring fish.

And in idea, it might detect all tagged fish transferring by means of the river, not only a cohort that may be electro-shocked or netted. 

Schiller has been checking the info every day and at 4 a.m. Wednesday the primary PIT-tagged sturgeon handed upstream by means of the array.

The sturgeon’s 15-digit code recognized it as a fish raised at Riveredge and stocked within the river in 2011, Schiller stated.

It was adopted by one other sturgeon hours later; the second fish was a Riveredge fish stocked in 2007.

Then on Thursday three extra Riveredge-reared sturgeon handed upriver, from the 2008, 2010 and 2011 12 months lessons, respectively.

At mid-week the river’s water temperature was 47 levels Fahrenheit and the move was 1,030 ft per second.

Schiller stated the DNR will proceed to watch the array in addition to go to the river to search for indicators of sturgeon spawning. It is probably extra fish will transfer upriver as water warms.

Sturgeon spawning usually happens when water temps attain from 53 to 59 levels, in accordance with DNR information from the Wolf River.

A number of facets of the Milwaukee River sturgeon restoration venture, together with stocking and fish detection, are actually in place.

It stays to be seen if the fish will try to spawn – they take 15 to twenty years to mature, and no spawning habits has been documented on the Milwaukee – and if the river could have enough habitat to permit profitable copy.

A river mapping venture by Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Division has tried to determine appropriate sturgeon spawning websites within the Milwaukee. 

The fish are recognized to efficiently spawn on rocky substrate with flows about 2 ft per second and better, in accordance with a habitat information by Fred Binkowski, sturgeon skilled on the UWM Faculty of Freshwater Sciences. 

Limestone rocks from 6 to 18 inches in diameter are significantly good for sturgeon spawning, stated Ron Bruch, retired DNR sturgeon biologist and fisheries director who helped restore spawning websites on the Wolf River. Bruch stated grownup sturgeon additionally require a staging space of deeper water comparatively near the spawning website.

“It is great to have sturgeon transferring up the Milwaukee,” Bruch stated. “Now it will likely be a matter of the fish displaying us if they’ve what they want.”

Spring hearings

A “important quantity” of enter was collected on-line Monday by means of Thursday  for the 2022 Division of Pure Sources Spring Hearings and Wisconsin Conservation Congress County Conferences, in accordance with Kari Lee-Zimmermann, DNR liaison to the congress.

This 12 months’s questionnaire featured 63 advisory questions on matters together with continual losing illness administration, deer farms,  walleye administration and wolf looking ways.

Lee-Zimmerman stated the DNR and WCC had been working by means of the info and outcomes needs to be accessible on the DNR’s webpage within the coming week.

Waterfowl laws set

 The Pure Sources Board on Wednesday authorized the 2022 Wisconsin migratory chicken looking season framework and laws.

Hunters could have a 60-day duck season with a six-duck every day bag restrict. 

Opening days shall be Sept. 24 for the North Zone, Oct. 1 for the South Zone and Oct. 15 for the Open Water Zone. A youth hunt shall be held statewide Sept. 17 and 18.

As well as, a statewide early teal season (Sept. 1-9, restrict six teal) and a statewide early Canada goose season (Sept. 1-15, restrict 5 geese) shall be held.

The every day duck bag restrict throughout the regular seasons could embrace not more than 4 mallards (together with a most of two hens), three wooden geese, two black geese, two canvasbacks, two redheads and one pintail.

As well as, particular laws apply to scaup. Hunters within the North Zone and Open Water Zone shall be allowed to take two scaup for the primary 45 days of the season and one scaup for the ultimate 15 days, whereas hunters within the South Zone shall be allowed one scaup for the primary 15 days and a pair of scaup for the ultimate 45.

The DNR obtained greater than 1,400 public feedback because it labored to determine this 12 months’s laws, in accordance with Taylor Finger, DNR migratory chicken ecologist.

For particulars of the 2022 laws, go to dnr.wi.gov.