MARQUETTE -- Thousands of fish made a splash into their new home in Lake Superior Thursday morning.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources dumped about 28,000 "splake," a hybrid of a female lake trout and brook trout, into the lake at the Shiras Power Plant in Marquette.
The DNR says the added fish bring diversity for fishermen looking for a catch in the shallow areas of Lake Superior. However, during the morning fish plant, it was the seagulls that happily welcomed the splake, as a hundred birds swarmed the area looking for breakfast.
"Some of the splake are eaten by seagull but the majority of fish certainly do survive. Seagulls make a lot of noise, and they're visible...but it's the larger fish in the body of water that's eating the splake," said DNR biologist, Jim Aho.
Each splake cost roughly a $1.25, and the fish introduced in Marquette totaled about $32,000.
The DNR plans to introduce 100,000 splake this spring. They've already stocked them in Copper Harbor and will finish introducing fish in Munising next week.
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