Images

Vessels like this use various sampling methods to collect fish at all life stages, adult, larvae, and eggs.

Nicole King (University of Toledo graduate student) holding a Grass Carp. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Michigan State University responded to a report from a commercial fisherman that grass carp were being captured in the Sandusky River. Researchers captured, tagged, and released grass carp to track their movements.

Juvenile cisco (Coregonus artedi) swim in a tank at Hammond Bay Biological Station. The station hosts multiple researchers conducting projects to aid restoration of Great Lakes cisco populations.

The R/V Sturgeon, based in Cheboygan, Michigan, was built in 1974 and currently operates on Lakes Huron and Michigan. The Sturgeon was transferred to the GLSC in the 1990s and was later retrofitted and commissioned in 2004.

View of Beaver Island captured during a fall gillnet survey assessing the adult lake trout population in the Northern Refuge of Lake Michigan in support of restoration.

GLSC Fisheries Technician Kristy Phillips (Ann Arbor, Michigan) measuring and Supervisory Biologist Tim O’Brien (Ann Arbor, Michigan) recording biometric data for fish species caught during the 2020 Lake Huron acoustics cruise aboard the Great Lakes Science Center’s R/V Sturgeon.

First mate, Lyle Grivicich (GLSC, Cheboygan, Michigan), looks on as Supervisory Fisheries Biologist, Tim O’Brien (GLSC, Ann Arbor, Michigan) examines a recently-caught lake trout under a microscope aboard the USGS Great Lakes Science Center’s Research Vessel Sturgeon, during the 2020 Lake Huron Acoustics cruise.

Tyler McGill (National Park Service) and GLSC ecologist Johanna Nifosi (Chesterton, Indiana) placing bee nests in forested parts of Indiana Dunes National Park. This collaboration between both agencies aims to understand how habitat traits influence native bee connectivity in the area.

Invasive dreissenid mussel-encrusted acoustic telemetry gear retrieved from Little Bay de Noc in Lake Michigan. Acoustic telemetry technology allows scientists to track fish movement throughout a water body, such as whitefish and walleye in the case of this project.

The tethered boats are well-distanced from one another while researchers SCUBA dive in Lake Huron as part of the Great Lakes Integrated Cladophora Assessment Project.

The USGS Great Lakes Science Center’s Sea Ark at sunrise as the crew prepares to tend acoustic telemetry receivers around Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior; the receivers monitor movement of tagged native lake trout in the area.

Searching for native, unionid mussels, USGS researchers collect eDNA samples in the Little Calumet River within Indiana Dunes National Park as a part of unionid mussels restoration project. Photo Credit: Kasia Przybyla-Kelly.

A masked USGS Great Lakes Science Center technician deploys an acoustic receiver into the waters of Lake Superior near Isle Royale National Park; the receivers will track the movement of tagged native lake trout in the area.

An Adaptive Resolution Imaging Sonar (ARIS) unit (Sound Metrics Corp., Bellevue, WA, USA) collects underwater images using sound waves at a water-control structure placed within the USFWS Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in Saginaw, Michigan.

USGS Great Lakes Science Center staff performing annual monitoring for the Phragmites Adaptive Management Framework (PAMF). Photo Credit: Theresa Gruninger, USGS.

A curious young raccoon peers in on GLSC researchers as they walk through a wetland in Ohio on the way to a study site.

Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve, near Sandusky Ohio taken on 30 July 2020 for the GLSC Photo Challenge

Staff from the Phragmites Adaptive Management Framework survey a site enrolled in the program for invasive Phragmites australis.  Photo credit: Taaja Tucker-Silva, USGS.

Dwarfed by the Zilwaukee bridge in Saginaw, Michigan, a GLSC contractor prepares to use a quadrat to count invasive Phragmites as part of a monitoring assistance program through the Phragmites Adaptive Management Framework. Read more at https://www.greatlakesphragmites.net/pamf/

A praying mantis assists with field monitoring of invasive Phragmites in Saginaw, Michigan. Measuring establishment of Phragmites is an important aspect of the Phragmites Adaptive Management Framework.

USGS Great Lakes Science Center student contractor performing annual monitoring for the Phragmites Adaptive Management Framework (PAMF).  Photo Credit: Taaja Tucker-Silva, USGS.