Images

USGS fishery biologist (GLSC; Ashland, Wisconsin) suturing a round whitefish (Prosopium cylindraceum) from Lake Superior as part of an acoustic telemetry project, a type of advanced technology. By tagging the specimen with an acoustic transmitter, the project team will be able to track the fish’s movement around the lake.

Dr. Benjamin Kramer is shown on a small research vessel in July 2025 near Sleeping Bear Dunes in Leelanau County, MI collecting benthic mats on Good Harbor Reef as part of USGS's UMESC SWIM (Spawning Whitefish Invasive Mussels) project. Photo Credi: Megan Lewan, USGS

The USGS leads federal research to control invasive carp species through innovative management tools and methods. Our research products for carp control have proven valuable for broader conservation applications.

DEVELOPING & ADVANCING TECHNOLOGIES

Olivia Mitchinson demonstrates alewife otolith removal to participants of angler workshop held at the State University of New York in Oswego. Otoliths are the structures that allow a fish to hear by picking up vibrations in the water. Photo credit: Jacob Bulich, USGS.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of a short section of lakebed imagery into a color point cloud (top) and orthomosaic (bottom), with a zoomed in view (right).  These georeferenced data products are typical to many mobile platforms. Photo credit: Phil Wernette, USGS.

The mouth of an adult sea lamprey captured from the Great Lakes (left) and the newly-developing mouth region of a sea lamprey transformer growing in experimental substrate at the USGS Hammond Bay Biological Station (GLSC; Millersburg, Michigan) as part of the Sea Lamprey Aquaculture and Procurement (SLAP) project.

All girls USGS research crew (GLSC; Cortland, New York; Oswego, New York) sampling environmental DNA (eDNA) aboard the Research Vessel Niagara in Oswego Harbor, New York. The eDNA will inform cisco spawning dynamics in bays along Lake Ontario, and is associated with the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s (GLRI) coregonine spawning habitat projects.

USGS researchers (GLSC; Millersburg, Michigan) tag a lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) with an acoustic transmitter as part of a multi-agency project looking at lake whitefish habitat use and movement patterns in Lake Huron. Photo credit: Brad Buechel, USGS-GLSC.

A USGS intern surveys non-native Phragmites australis at a research site in Milan, Michigan, following an experimental non-toxic bioherbicide treatment in 2024. Photo credit: USGS.

A researcher closing an incision after surgical implantation of an acoustic transmitter in a lake whitefish, October 2024. Photo credit: Brad Buechel, USGS.

Invasive Phragmites australis in the early morning sunshine at Crystal Waters State Game Area in Michigan, taken before a day of field sampling by USGS scientists (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan). Photo Credit: McKenzie Smith, USGS - GLSC.

Gill net float at entrance to backwater habitat set to capture Grass Carp in the lower Huron River, OH. Photo credit: James Roberts, USGS.

A USGS technician and contractor (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) deploy an Iver3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) from the Research Vessel Dragonfly in Lake Michigan's Porte des Morts in Door County, Wisconsin. Data collected from the AUV are being used to characterize and map physical habitats and invasive species on the lakebed as

USGS researchers (GLSC; Cortland, New York; Ann Arbor, Michigan) collecting and recording fish glucose levels from specimens caught during a Lake Michigan bottom trawl survey aboard the R/V Arcticus. Data was used to test alternative processing methods to inform future Great Lakes Science Center International Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) taking images underwater in Lake Michigan as part of the USGS Great Lakes Science Center Computer Vision project (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Photo credit: Zach Melnick, Inspired Planet Ideas; used with permission.

USGS scientists (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) assess the health of invasive Phragmites australis that was treated with a naturally derived herbicide. Photo Credit: Spenser Widin, USGS - GLSC.

All hands on deck as USGS researchers (GLSC; Ashland, Wisconsin; Ann Arbor, Michigan) sort out native coregonine species caught as part of the Deepwater Cisco survey on Lake Superior aboard the R/V Kiyi. Photo Credit: Patty Dieter, USGS-GLSC.

USGS researcher (GLSC; Chesterton, Indiana) observes a tardigrade under the microscope while processing algae samples from Lake Huron as part of an on-going Cladophora Project. Photo credit: Jessica Oswald, USGS-GLSC.

USGS researchers on the St. Clair Detroit River System (SCDRS) crew (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) beginning the annual seine survey at Pointe Mouillee State Game Area's Banana Dike, near the mouth of the Detroit River. The wind offered a helping hand—expanding the net for the team (albeit in the wrong direction!). Photo credit: Stacy Provo, USGS-GLSC.

A Kiyi (Coregonus kiyi), captured from a gillnet during field sampling aboard the USGS Research Vessel Kiyi (GLSC; Ashland, Wisconsin), near the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. Read more about Great Lakes coregonine species, their dramatic decline, and the work being done to protect them, here.

AUV Staging