Friends of the Upper Mississippi

2021 was an average year for Mississippi River flows, but after the past few years of high-water flows seemed low. This was especially true in the slough at Blackhawk Park where our Mobile Aquatic Rearing System trailer spends its summer. There were several periods where flows were so low that there wasn’t much, or any, fresh water flowing into the slough from the river and water quality declined several times. As mussels get larger, they’re more resilient to stress because they can stay closed longer, and we saw evidence of this in the Mobile Aquatic Rearing System this year, with greater than 90% survival for our two-year-old and older animals. Survival is always much lower for newly transformed juveniles, and some species had no juveniles survive this summer. Fortunately, we successfully produced many Higgins Eye this year and despite poor survival overall, we collected more than 10,000 juveniles from the trailer in October. These will hopefully continue to grow and survive to be stocked into the Chippewa to continue our reintroduction efforts there.
By: Megan Bradley

Nine, 2-5 millimeter Higgins Eye mussels crawl around in a petri dish during recovery from the Mobile Aquatic Rearing System (MARS trailer). These animals are still tiny and therefore translucent enough that you can see their dark guts while they crawl around seeking different habitats (flow, food and stable sediment). Photo: Megan Bradley/USFWS.

A frosty fall morning. Photo: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.

Fall is by far my favorite time of year. The bluffs begin to turn to their gorgeous red and orange colors,
cuing in harvest season. Farmers are busy bringing in their crops, squirrels are busy storing away a
winter supply, and hunters are out looking to fill the freezer. It’s also harvest time for us at the
hatchery, where we get to see the fruits of our summer labor. We had 16 ponds to pull in with
Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Black Crappie, Bluegill, Golden Shiner, Fathead
Minnow, and Rainbow Trout included. Some of these fish were settled into their new winter digs at
the hatchery, where we will have five overwinter ponds with mussel host fish, broodstock, Rainbow
Trout for production, and of course our ice fishing pond full of lunker Rainbow Trout! Others were
stocked out to lakes and rivers stretching from Southern Illinois to Northern Wisconsin. It’s always a
welcome sight to see the last ponds come in during the fall and usher us into another beautiful
season, the Wisconsin winter! By: Nick Bloomfield

USFWS staff seining for Fathead minnows

Orey Eckes on the left tagging Coaster Brook Trout with a volunteer on the right. Photo: USFWS.

Meet the new boss….same as the old boss. These song lyrics were written by the Who in one of their most popular songs in the 70’s, and were never more accurate when describing the new assistant manager at the Genoa (WI) National Fish Hatchery. Orey Eckes was selected to replace Angela Baran Dagendesh, former Assistant Manager of the Genoa hatchery.
Angela has moved onward and upward after her decade at the hatchery by accepting a position in the Washington Office’s Division of Refuges. Orey started at the Genoa station in 2011 as a Pathways student and worked his way up through the ranks after earning his Master’s Degree. His thesis focused on an important lake sturgeon life history research question, and in 2013 he completed his thesis on Lake Sturgeon egg development and initiation of exogenous feeding as influenced by water temperature. This project answered a research question that benefited many lake sturgeon restoration programs and their managers including many states, tribes and across a few international boundaries. Recently he served as the station’s primary fish biologist, whose duties included direct day to day supervision of the station’s lake sturgeon production building. We welcome Orey into his new role and are anxious to help him transition into his new role at the hatchery, both serving the staff and the aquatic resources that we have all committed to conserve. By: Doug Aloisi

Orey Eckes holding a Lake Sturgeon from the Genoa NFH. Photo: USFWS

The end of the summer growing season is a busy time for the mussel program. As water temperatures begin to drop, propagated juvenile mussels that have spent the summer in various outdoor culture locations are collected and brought back to the mussel building to over-winter. Culture locations have been selected to provide the juvenile mussels a diverse, natural food base (river water) in a secure location (Dubuque’s Ice Harbor, in partnership with the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, and Blackhawk Park, in partnership with the Corps of Engineers). After a summer of growth, mussels are collected, counted, cleaned, and measured. Individuals that have added sufficient growth over the summer are tagged and released at the end of the fall, others over-winter in rearing pans in the mussel building.  This summer, juvenile mussels were placed supsys (Suspended Upwelling SYStems) and newly transformed juveniles dropped off fish in cages in the Ice Harbor. Cages were pulled out of the water, cleaned and sorted by a wonderful group of volunteers, River Museum staff, Iowa DNR staff, and USFWS colleagues. Just over 2000 juvenile Higgins Eye mussels were recovered from the sandy substrate in the cages. Pictures of this event were featured on the River Museum’s social media pages, and on Genoa’s Facebook page. Supsys have been maintained all season by River Museum staff and student volunteers and will be end-of-season processed and returned to GNFH in October.
 

Juvenile Higgins Eye that spent the summer in the MARS trailer are now settled into their winter housing in the mussel building. Photo: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.

Many thousands of newly transformed juvenile mussels and older juveniles of 9 species spent the summer in the MARS (Mobile Aquatic Rearing System) trailer at Blackhawk Park. These juveniles are being counted, measured, and returned to the mussel building throughout the fall. A couple of very dedicated volunteers joined GNFH and other USFWS staff in the processing and counting of cages placed in Pond 14 at the hatchery. This was the 3rd year of an experiment evaluating polyculture methods and pond management. This year’s experiment did not yield any newly transformed juvenile mussels, though about 1000 older Fatmucket juveniles survived and grew to sufficient size in the pond that they can be tagged and released this fall. By: Beth Glidewell

USFWS staff and volunteers recovering mussel cages from Dubuque’s Ice Harbor at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium’s dock. Photo: Erica Rasmussen/USFWS.

Volunteers helped count, sort, and record length measurements of the juvenile Fatmucket recovered from cages placed in Pond 14. Photo: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.

Teachers and students from Black River Falls listen to Fish Biologist, Nick Bloomfield explain about pond harvest.

October is one of the busiest months of the year at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery. October means pond harvesting time. This is the time to see what a summer worth of feeding and careful water monitoring has produced. It also offers excellent opportunities for outdoor education. Just ask Steve Teeples and his students from Black River Falls. Mr. Teeples class helped kickoff this year’s pond harvesting season starting with our smallmouth bass pond.  The students eagerly put on waders and jumped into the pond toassist by scooping up hundreds of smallmouth bass and transferred them to the USFWS hatchery truck. It was great to see the excitement on their faces as they assisted with the task and learned about the life cycle of the smallmouth bass. They also learned how smallmouth bass are a host fish used in the reproduction of freshwater mussels.

Students scooping up fish in net.

In total, 9,169 smallmouth bass were harvested from the pond. Some of the bass will be distributed to federal, tribal, and state agencies to be stocked in water bodies, used in the production of freshwater mussels or kept for future broodstock.
I may be a little biased, but I honestly believe that these hands-on outdoor opportunities are vital for students’ education. It allows students to use all of their senses to interact with the natural world while assisting the hatchery with a necessary task. It also exposes them directly to natural resource based career opportunities. If you have any interest in volunteering or bringing a class to the Genoa National Fish Hatchery, please feel free to contact me. By: Erica Rasmussen