Images

USGS researchers and technicians (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Chesterton, Indiana) on the Cladophora team during summer sampling on Lake Michigan near Leland, Michigan. Photo credit: Greg Kennedy, USGS-GLSC.

A USGS contractor (GLSC; Chesterton, Indiana), and Cladophora project team member, filters water samples through an environmental DNA (eDNA) backpack while sampling on Lake Huron. Information gathered will improve understanding of fish habitat usage while testing new DNA-based methods for fish population assessment.

Crew of the USGS Great Lakes Science Center R/V Muskie (Huron, Ohio) testing bottom trawl equipment in Lake Erie off the coast of Cleveland, Ohio, in preparation for the upcoming field season.  Photo credit: Kevin Keretz, USGS

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) on the deck of the USGS Research Vessel Ghost Shiner (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) as a storm front blows in over Lake Michigan. Photo credit: Luke Sayler, USGS-GLSC.

USGS science diver (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) lays down quadrats for benthic sampling (background), while a surface crew member takes a water profile using a multiparameter sonde deployed over the side of the vessel.

USGS researchers (GLSC; Millersburg, Michigan) use a light source to attract and capture lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) at night on Buffalo Reef in Lake Superior. Photo credit: Brad Buechel, USGS-GLSC.

USGS Great Lakes Science Center R/V Sturgeon heading home to Cheboygan Vessel Base (Cheboygan, Michigan) after a spring gillnet survey in the Northern Refuge of Lake Michigan. This survey is completed annually and has been ongoing since 2001.

The USGS science crew (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) aboard the Research Vessel Arcticus (GLSC; Cheboygan, Michigan) with a haul of invasive alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) collected during a spring bottom trawl survey on Lake Michigan.

GLSC’s Stacey Ireland and attendees reviewing a larval fish identification at the OMNRF Field Office in Wheatley, Ontario. Photo Credit: Robin DeBruyne, USGS.

Sea lampreys in a tank at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Sea lampreys are a parasitic invasive species in the Great Lakes.

Photo of the first ever sea lamprey reared in the laboratory at the USGS Hammond Bay Biological Station (GLSC; Millersburg, MI) to undergo transformation (metamorphosis), which entails moving from the larval life stage to the parasitic life stage. Photo credit: Trisha Searcy, USGS.

USGS researchers (GLSC; Cortland and Oswego, New York) fertilize cisco (Coregonus artedi) eggs from adults captured in Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario that were transported to Little Sodus Bay, Lake Ontario and seeded on cleaned substrate within the bay. Photo credit: Marc Chalupnicki, USGS.

Toronto's skyline at sunset from Humber Bay in Lake Ontario. Photo credit: Alden Tilley, USGS.

USGS marine maintenance repairer and ship operator (GLSC; Cheboygan, Michigan) ready the trawl doors at sunset as the R/V Sturgeon heads out for a night of work to search for ciscos (Coregonus artedi) on Lake Huron. Photo credit: Patty Dieter, USGS.

A honey bee (genus Apis) observed visiting an aster; a great observation for potential environmental DNA that can be recovered. Photo credit: Leslie Reyes, USGS Contractor.

The GLSC’s R/V Sturgeon leaves Charlevoix, Michigan at the end of a lake trout spawner gillnet survey on Lake Michigan to head home to the Cheboygan Vessel Base (GLSC; Cheboygan, Michigan). Photo credit: Patty Dieter, USGS.

A USGS technician (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) throws the gillnet buoy flag overboard during a fall gillnet survey on Lake Michigan aboard the GLSC’s R/V Sturgeon. Photo credit: Patty Dieter, USGS.

USGS science staff (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) and vessel crewmembers (GLSC; Cheboygan, Michigan) picking lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) out of a gillnet during the 2023 Lake Michigan Northern Refuge lake trout spawner survey aboard the GLSC’s R/V Sturgeon. Photo credit: Ben Leonhardt, USGS.

Colorful elutriates (washings) from processed fresh flower samples as part of a Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded pollinator project (GLSC; Chesterton, Indiana). Photo credit: Leslie Reyes, USGS Contractor.

Two USGS science technicians (GLSC; Ann Arbor, Michigan) and the ship operator (GLSC; Cheboygan, Michigan) take in the early morning scenery as the R/V Sturgeon heads out for a day of setting gillnets in the Northern Refuge of Lake Michigan. Photo credit: Patty Dieter, USGS.

Juvenile lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) caught in a sea lamprey net in November 2023 in the Sturgeon River in northern Michigan. Photo credit: Ed Benzer, USGS.