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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Salmon in Lake Huron


Here is an interesting article from "MLive.com" about Atlantic Salmon in Lake Huron.  It quotes Frank Krist, who lives in Rogers City and serves as Chairman of the Fisheries Advisory Board.  Fishing in our areas is definately better now that it has been for almost a decade.
 
 
State Moves to Stock Lake Huron with Atlantic Salmon
Published: Monday, December 03, 2012, 8:14 AM Updated: Monday, December 03, 2012, 8:19 AM
Lake Huron’s thriving lake trout, steelhead and smallmouth bass fishery will become even more diverse next year.
State fish managers plan to ramp up stocking of Atlantic salmon.  “I like to call this the transition
period,” said Todd Grischke, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Lake Huron Basincoordinator. “This started as a rearing experiment. We have been through three years of rearing cycles withlimited success. Now, we’re moving from the rearing to the stocking component.”  
Lake Huron will get 60,000 to 80,000 Atlantic salmon yearlings starting in 2013. That could climb to 120,000 in
future years if more can be produced at Platte River State Fish Hatchery in Beulah,
Grischke said. His agency has spent three years learning how to raise them. The hatchery
primarily has been used to rear Chinook and Coho salmon. Growing Atlantics from an egg to
yearling stage is a bit trickier, he said.

The Platte River facility draws water from the Platte River. Atlantic salmon are more susceptible
than Coho and Chinook to diseases such as furunculosis and whirling disease, which might be
present in the water. A $150,000 ultraviolet water filter was installed to reduce the potential for
disease, a problem that initially plagued the experimental program.
Frank Krist, of Rogers City, said he is pleased with the decision to stock Atlantic salmon. Krist
chairs the state’s Lake Huron Citizen’s Advisory Committee. He fishes Lake Huron four to five
times a week and favors a multispecies fishery.
“On Lake Huron, it’s not unusual to come back from fishing with two or three different species in
the cooler,” Krist said. “Adding another, Atlantic salmon, will make for an exciting fishery out there.”

The idea to stock Atlantic salmon originated with Krist and others, all members of the Hammond
Bay Area Anglers.  The group was aware of the success Lake Superior State University has had growing and
stocking them on the St. Mary’s River at Sault Ste. Marie. Group members urged the DNR to attempt the
same, hoping to fill the void created by the Lake Huron Chinook salmon collapse in 2004.
Atlantics are expected to survive where Chinook did not because they are opportunistic feeders.
Their diet is more diverse than Chinooks, which only feed on alewives.
The alewife collapse, because of invasive mussels stripping the lake of the plankton they eat,
proved good for lake trout, which have flourished since. Alewives contain a compound called
thiamanse, which interferes with lake trout reproductive success. Once the alewives disappeared,
the lake trout population grew again.

“For all the bad news we got about Lake Huron (when the collapse occurred), the walleye, lake
trout and steelhead are going gangbusters,” Grischke said. “We will be marking the Atlantic
salmon and hope to get information about them in the open water creel census. Hopefully, we will
see some success on a limited scale.”

Monday, December 10, 2012

Michigan Third in High Tech Jobs

Here is a great article from the Detroit free Press that reveals a growing trend for our state.  Let's jump on this band wagon!

Michigan ranks 3rd in high-tech job growth, study finds

2:45 PM, December 6, 2012 |  Detroit Free Press Staff

Michigan ranked third in the nation for high-tech job growth from 2010-2011, according to a study released today by the Bar Area Council Economic Institute.The report, which was touted by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, named Lansing as the 6th highest metro area in high-tech job growth in the U.S., and listed metro Detroit – specifically, Warren, Troy and Farmington – as 13th.“This is great news for the Lansing area and for the state of Michigan,” Travis Stoliker, marketing director of Liquid Web, a Lansing-based web hosting company, said in a prepared statement. “Now our challenge is to build on this positive momentum and continue to encourage and support technology startups, entrepreneurs, education and training."The study was commissioned by San Francisco-based Engine Advocacy, a political advocacy organization, and analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics data.“Very few places in the world can match our technology leadership, R&D capabilities, and world-class workforce,” MEDC president and CEO Michael A. Finney said in a prepared statement. “These strengths make us a great location for high-tech innovators to grow their businesses and create jobs.”According to the report, high tech was a “consistent bright spot in the U.S. economy,” and a typical high-tech worker earns 17%-27% more than a comparable worker in another field.Other key findings:• Since 2004, employment growth in the high-tech sector has outpaced growth in the private sector as a whole by a ratio of 3-to-1.• Employment projections indicate that demand for high-tech workers will be stronger than for workers outside of high-tech at least through 2020• And income generated by the high-tech sector and the strong employment growth is important contributors to regional economic development.Michigan, with 6.9% annual growth, was ranked behind, Delaware, with 12.8% growth, and South Carolina, with 8.6%.Other states in the top 10 were Kansas, 6%; Washington 5.8%; Texas 4.7%; Ohio, 4.6%, and North Carolina, Alabama and Colorado – all at 4.3% growth.Among metro areas, Greensboro-High Point, N.C., led the pack with 36.3% annual growth; followed by Columbia, S.C., 28.6%; Dayton, Ohio, 24.2%; San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif., 20.1%; and Ogden-Clearfield, Utah.