Friends of the Upper Mississippi

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2023  

8:30 AM – 12 PM

Genoa National Fish Hatchery and Great River Road Interpretive Center

Join hatchery staff, the Midwest Fisheries Center, and Friends of the Upper Mississippi for our popular Kids Ice Fishing Day! This event is for children ages 5-12, accompanied by a parent or guardian. New this year, participants can try their hand at snowshoeing! Volunteers will be onsite to talk to folks about winter recreational opportunities and will have snowshoes for folks to try out.

Event schedule:
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Registration, children must be registered to fish
9:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. Ice Safety and Ice Fishing Tips
9:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Open Fishing for Kids
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Snowshoe Demo

Fishing poles, bait, and tackle will be provided by the hatchery, Midwest Fisheries Center, and Friends of the Upper Mississippi. A warming tent will be onsite and a light lunch will be provided for participants, courtesy of Friends of the Upper Mississippi.

Due to limited space and biosecurity concerns, no outside ice fishing tents or bait will be permitted.
In order to provide ample time for kids to get equipment and catch their fish, children must be registered no later than 11:00 a.m.

This event is weather and ice condition dependent. We will announce the cancellation or postponement of the event here on the Facebook event page, broadcast it on 97.1 FM WCOW, and will post signs at the hatchery. This event will be held at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery, S5631 State Highway 35, Genoa, WI, on the east side of the highway at Pond 11. Traveling 3 miles south of Genoa, WI, drive past the office sign on the right and take a left by the rearing buildings on the east side of Highway 35. Follow the signs and please park in the designated areas.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2023 AT 8:30 AM – 12 PM

As hustle and bustle from school groups visiting during the spring, summer and fall are winding down, it is a great time for reflection on how our education and outreach programs are going and how to make improvements for next year. We had a great year with over 30 different schools visiting the Genoa National Fish Hatchery. I was also able to attend 25 different community outreach programs set up by partners in the surrounding areas. This allowed me to share Genoa’s mission to recover threatened and endangered aquatic species, restore threatened fish populations, provide fishery resources support to National Wildlife Refuges, Native American tribes, and to provide sport fish to increase recreational opportunities on public lands to 6,870 people! With most of the COVID restrictions now lifted and the Highway 35 road construction completed, we are excited to see even more visitors next year as they travel down the Great River Road. I am still looking to reach more schools during the winter months and let them know that Hatchery’s never shut down and we are developing a winter program. We already have Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout and Lake Trout eggs being cared for. It is also a great time to enjoy a winter hike and or to work on your animal track identification in the snow. We are also looking forward to having the community join us for our annual Kids Ice Fishing Event that will take place in February. Please follow us on Facebook for more details and date of the event. www.facebook.com/GenoaNFH. By: Erica Rasmussen

Kids Ice Fishing Event at Genoa NFH.

The growing season for most of our fish is over for the year, and they have all been either put in their winter homes in their overwintering ponds, or a few species are kept a watchful eye over the entire winter in several of our culture buildings. The staff has a very slight breather to begin maintenance on our streamside rearing units, nets and fish culture equipment, and then are hard at it again as our cold water species of fish eggs arrive at the hatchery in December and January. These join our lake trout eggs at the station in their perspective separate areas, an isolated to reduce the risk of cross species disease transmission. The lake trout have been on board since early October, arriving from New York and held in quarantine, being a relative unknown as far as fish health status is concerned. These eggs came from the wild and will remain here growing into 10-12 inch fish and experiencing 3 fish health exams before being safely moved to FWS captive broodstock stations. Here they will produce millions of eggs yearly to be stocked as fingerlings to restore lake trout in 4 of the 5 Great Lakes. Our brook trout eggs, received from Iron River (WI) National Fish Hatchery, will be grown to 9 inches and released in Lake Superior to help restore the “coaster” brook trout, which can grow much larger than the inland stream brook trout. Then follows the Rainbow trout, a great sport fish in its own right. Most of the Rainbows are stocked in Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy Army Base and tribal waters to increase sport fishing opportunities. We also save some back for our Youth Fishing and Veterans and Differently-Abled Fishing events. So much for a winter break. The fish keep coming, and we are thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the FWS mission of Conserving the Nations Aquatic Resources for the Continuing Benefit of the American Public.
By: Doug Aloisi

Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout and Lake Trout eggs in a jar and container. Photo credit: USFWS

Genoa National Fish Hatchery was presented with the opportunity to culture lake sturgeon for restoration efforts into the Maumee River (Toledo, Ohio). As part of a multi-agency effort amongst the Toledo Zoo, USFWS, USGS, Ohio DNR, Michigan DNR, University of Toledo and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry lake sturgeon have been reintroduced to the Maumee River since 2018, a tributary of Lake Erie. Historically populations of lake sturgeon were abundant in the river; however they are no longer present. Research has shown that the Maumee River is a strong candidate for lake sturgeon reintroduction, providing suitable habitat for spawning adults and offspring. Southern Lake Huron (Upper St. Clair River) population was used as donor stock for this study. Recently lake sturgeon have been cultured in stream side rearing facilities in multiple locations along rivers that are Great Lakes tributaries to allow for sturgeon to imprint on natal water, with the hope of increasing site fidelity as a returning spawning adult. A sturgeon trailer was deployed near the Toledo Zoo in 2018 to raise 1500 lake sturgeon on Maumee River water and the Genoa National Fish Hatchery will raise 1500 lake sturgeon on hatchery water supply. To date 6,397 lake sturgeon have been stocked from Genoa into the Maumee River. Once fish are 7 inches at both locations, they are tagged with a PIT (passive integrated transponder) tag to monitor future growth and survival. This project calls for paired releases of sturgeon from both locations for 25 years to reach a target self-sustaining population. Adult returns to the river from the stocked population will be monitored to see if sturgeon cultured in a streamside rearing facility exhibit higher stocking site fidelity rates vs. fish cultured at offsite locations (Genoa National Fish Hatchery). In addition, researchers will assess post stocking survival rates between sturgeon cultured in a streamside facility and sturgeon reared in a traditional hatchery. Also, the streamside facility located on the Maumee River (Toledo Zoo) property serves as an exceptional place to engage the public in lake sturgeon restoration. The Toledo zoo incorporates lake sturgeon restoration and the streamside trailer into one of the exhibits open to the public.

By: Orey Eckes

Lake Sturgeon being measured in a tray and an open hand with pit tags next to a pencil. Photo Credit: Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office.

Two USFWS worker extracting eggs out of a fish. Photo: USFWS

Lots of great conservation stories coming out of New York and Wisconsin this year. Ongoing conservation efforts with the New York Department of Conservation and the New York Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have kept the Genoa staff busy this October. A substantial portion of Genoa’s crew and even a member of the Midwest Fisheries Center in La Crosse WI spent time in October travelling back and forth from Wisconsin to New York to further fisheries restorations in New York and the Midwest. Concurrent egg takes of lake trout eggs in Cayuga Lake, and lake sturgeon restoration efforts in multiple waterways in New York occurred the first two weeks of October of this year.
Jeff Lockington of the Genoa staff was the lead in collecting Cayuga Lake strain lake trout eggs with New York DEC staff yielding eggs of over 100 pair of females. The eggs were shipped or driven back to Genoa to be folded into our quarantine building activities. The lake trout from Cayuga Lake are descendants of Seneca Lake, another lake in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. Fish descended from this strain have been more resistant to post stocking sea lamprey predation in the Great Lakes and many spring yearling lake trout are produced annually for stocking each year throughout the Great Lakes system. Eggs brought to Genoa will be quarantined and inspected for any fish health issues for 18 months and 3 formal fish health inspections at the USFWS La Crosse Fish Health Center before release to captive broodstock stations in Michigan and Massachusetts. One year class of this strain is already residing in Genoa’s quarantine building and will be crossed with this new year class when becoming mature in order to increase the genetic contribution of their progeny. It is hoped that this will increase their fitness and survival post stocking to adapt and thrive outside of captivity in the Great Lakes. Also in this month, 2 stocking trips brought over 13,700 lake sturgeon fall fingerlings averaging over 6.25 inches back to the state of New York for ongoing restoration programs. The fish started as eggs taken from the St. Lawrence River in New York in June of this year, which were brought back to Genoa for growout. After a hard summer of growth, they were returned and stocked in state waters. Results from fall New York DEC surveys of last year showed that survey parameters were met in 4 of the states 6 management areas that indicate those areas are being restored. According to state restoration plans, if one more management area can meet these standards the species will meet de-listing criteria on the state’s Threatened and Endangered Species list. Great news for the many sturgeon enthusiasts, both professional and citizen scientists that participate in bringing back this unique species. By: Doug Aloisi

Jeff Lockington releasing lake sturgeon into a river. Photo: USFWS