Friends of the Upper Mississippi

As spring approaches, hatchery staff are hard at work fixing and fine tuning any equipment that will be needed, come field season. This ranges from resupplying spawning kits to bagging dip nets to hemming hoop nets. During early April, hatchery staff set 63 hoop nets in Pool 9 of the Upper Mississippi River to collect actively spawning adult Walleyes. Before staff can do this, hoop nets are pressure washed, dried, brushed clean and hand stitched to ensure no debris or holes remain from the previous season. Any mesh that appears weak is replaced with new twine and the nets are later tarred to ensure durability throughout the spawning season. Once tarred these nets are extremely rigid and durable allowing for successful Walleye collection. In 2023, hatchery staff were able to spawn 82 ripe females and 164 ripe males in a single day! Once collected, eggs and fry are shipped to different federal, state, and tribal partners for restoration and sport fishing, including stocking Pool 9 of the Mississippi River. Some fry are also kept on station to be raised for freshwater mussel culture as host fish for the Black Sandshell mussel. With the abnormally warm winter the hatchery staff are excited to get back in

Orey Eckes using a brush to remove debris from hoop nets. Jeff Lockington and Jadon Motquin mending/patching hoop nets. Photo: Erica Rasmussen/USFWS.

Who knew we would be hoping for colder weather here in Wisconsin this time of the year, but due to unseasonably warm temperatures and an unfavorable forecast, Genoa National Fish Hatchery is reluctantly cancelling the Kids Ice Fishing Day for 2024. Please follow our FB Page for news and information on the other great events here at the hatchery

Thank you for your support!

Erica Rasmussen 

Environmental Education Specialist

Genoa National Fish Hatchery

S5631 State Hwy 35

Genoa WI, 54632

608-689-2605 

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/genoa

http://www.facebook.com/GenoaNFH

Erica_Rasmussen@fws.gov

We’re excited to welcome a new mussel biologist to the hatchery. Tyler Weber joins us from USGS where he’s been raising fish and mussels for research at the Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center and is rejoining the hatchery staff after working with us during college. Tyler started at the hatchery in October, and has been working hard from day one, learning, caring for our fish, mussels and dragonflies and helping get ready for winter. He enjoys spending time outdoors, hunting and traveling. We’re looking forward to everything he will contribute to freshwater mussel and fish conservation, and how he develops in his conservation career. By: Megan Bradley

Tyler  sorting mussels into a tray. Photo credit: USFWS.

In early November, Genoa NFH staff were busy collecting and checking Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly larvae that had spent the 2023 growing season in culture at the Hatchery. These larvae had been collected as eggs in late summer 2022 by research partners with the University of South Dakota, and had been transferred as eggs to Genoa NFH last November. This cohort was the first group from the Lower Des Plaines River (IL) population to be cultured at Genoa NFH; previous cohorts of Hine’s Emeralds had been collected from a population in Northern Wisconsin. The population in the Des Plaines River area is smaller though more genetically diverse than the Northern Wisconsin population, this coupled with increased threats from urban development (the Chicago metro area) makes augmentation and conservation of the Des Plaines population a high priority for this project.

Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly larvae collected from its culture cage at the end of the growing season and placed in a culture cup for transport. Larvae from Genoa NFH will over winter at the University of South Dakota in Dr. Dan Soluk’s research lab..

This year’s cohort at Genoa NFH had 43.5% survival from the egg stage to the end of the growing season, or 241 individuals. They were transported to USD for over wintering, and when they are ready to emerge as adults, will be released into the habitats along the Des Plaines River to augment that population. As these larger larvae were leaving Genoa NFH, the next cohort was arriving—Lower Des Plaines River population eggs that had been collected in late summer 2023 to over winter at the Hatchery. Drought conditions last summer limited the number of ovipositing females that could be collected, so the 2024 cohort is going to be a smaller group than previous years. These eggs will be held at a steady 3-4°C all winter, until warming in the spring begins the hatching process and the cycle continues.

By: Beth Glidewell

Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly eggs housed at Genoa NFH. Individual Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly larvae packed for transport. Photo credit: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.