Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

CHOCOLAY TOWNSHIP -- Fish have been marked, using a variety of methods, for more than 200 years.

Until recently, all marking of some 300,000 fish a year at the Marquette State Fish Hatchery was done by hand.  This summer,  the agency is using a mass marking trailer.

Through a series of plastic tubes, a three-inch fingerling is measured and sorted using computers, water jets and flapping plastic ports into one of several containers to be clipped and tagged.  Repeat 25,000 times and that's a day's work for fish biologists working at the Marquette State Fish Hatchery.  They're experimenting with a mass marking trailer for the use of lake trout.

"They're trying to tinker with the technology so that it works faster and more efficiently," said Jan Vanamberg, the Upper Peninsula area hatchery manager.

The computerized technology was originally designed for salmon and can process 60,000 of them a day, but the goal is now to clip and tag lake trout.

"The lake trout have a different body form and different behaviors, so we have to make some modifications to the equipment to compensate for that," said fish biologist Joel Lahaie.

During an eight hour shift, a maximum of 25,000 lake trout can be processed, which is more efficient than doing it by hand.  Plus, it's better for the fish because they don't have to be given anesthesia.

"To reduce that stress as much as possible helps the fish," Lahaie said.

The mass marking trailer is being provided at no cost to the DNR by the manufacturer, Northwest Marine Technology.

According to Vanamberg, having the equipment onsite this summer has helped the agency save money.

"The DNR's budget is fairly tight these days," Vanamberg said, "and it costs up to $8,000 to $9,000 to hire short-term labor to clip our fish."

When done marking lake trout at the Marquette State Fish Hatchery, the crew on board the mass marking trailer will take their findings and try to improve the equipment.