Michigan DNR works to reintroduce native fish that vanished nearly 100 years ago

Fish last seen in 1930s

Arctic Grayling, photographed under water, Clearwater Creek Alaska. (AKSMITH/Wikipedia)

The last time the Arctic grayling fish was seen in Michigan waterways, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

Nearly 100 years since its local extinction, Michigan is working to reintroduce the fish, which once thrived in the state’s cold-water streams. Fishermen and wildlife enthusiasts visited destinations such as the Au Sable River in Grayling to find this fish.

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The Arctic grayling, a striking fish with a sail-like dorsal fin and slate-blue coloration, was virtually the only native stream salmonid in the northern Lower Peninsula before the population vanished in the 1930s.

Three factors contributed to the grayling’s demise in Michigan: habitat destruction, unregulated harvest and predation/competition from nonnative fish species, the DNR says.

Since 2016, the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative – comprised of the Michigan DNR, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and more than 40 other partners – has worked to bring this locally extinct species back to Michigan.

Related: Huge lake sturgeon believed to be 100 years old caught in Detroit River

The DNR said this week that late this past spring, the DNR received the 2021 year-class of brood eggs from Alaska. A year-class is a group of fish raised from the same year’s egg-take – in other words, fish that are the same age. The eggs from this year-class will help establish a brood population in Michigan. The next class is planned for May 2022, when the DNR and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will collect eggs from Alaska’s Chena River.

When will you see Arctic grayling in Michigan waters? The DNR says the first fish from Michigan’s Arctic grayling broodstock are expected to be available for reintroduction in 2024 or 2025. Find out more about the project here.


About the Author:

Ken Haddad has proudly been with WDIV/ClickOnDetroit since 2013. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters, and helps lead the WDIV Insider team. He's a big sports fan and is constantly sipping Lions Kool-Aid.