DNR begins stocking 20 million fish across more than 1,000 Michigan lakes and streams
By WXYZ Staff
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Michigan (WXYZ) — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said fish stocking is taking place in hundreds of lakes and streams across the state.
According to the DNR, there is a fleet of 18 specialist fish-stocking vehicles that are used to stock more than 20 million fish annually, weighing more than 350 tons.
Species stocked include: steelhead; Atlantic, Chinook and coho salmon; splake (a hybrid of brook and lake trout) and brown, brook, lake and rainbow trout; muskellunge and walleye.
The stocking begins in mid-March and ends in early June, and officials say the stocking trucks will travel over 100,000 miles to stock more than 1,000 locations.
According to the department, fish stocking is a valuable tool for fisheries managers, and can be used to provide a range of fishing opportunities, restore balance to ecosystems, rehabilitate fish populations and more.
“In some cases, stocking would be unnecessary or even detrimental to a lake or stream or to fish populations,” Jeremiah Blaauw, DNR fish marking and stocking biologist, said. “If a fish population is producing well naturally and in alignment with angling demand and management goals for that species, we don’t stock on top of those wild populations.”
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