Group trying to stage comeback for fish extinct in Michigan

GRAYLING, Mich. (AP) — A fish named for this northern Michigan city vanished from state waters more than 70 years ago, but it will be back if a private group has its way.

The Grayling Fish Hatchery steering committee is trying to raise $1 million to reopen a hatchery that operated for 50 years after it was established in 1914 — shortly before grayling disappeared from the Lower Peninsula.

The group wants to acquire grayling eggs from a hatchery or the wild. The fish would be raised inside the hatchery building located on the East Branch of the Au Sable River, as part of an educational and historical exhibit.

"I think it would be great," Crawford County Environmental Monitor Bruce Patrick told The Bay City Times for a Sunday story. "The grayling fish is an important part of our history. It brought people from all over the world to Grayling to go fishing."

Although native to Michigan, the grayling — distinguished by its slate blue color and sail-like dorsal fin — vanished from Lower Michigan around 1915 and from the Upper Peninsula in the 1930s. It fell victim to habitat destruction during the logging era and overfishing, said James P. Baker, district fisheries biologist for the state Department of Natural Resources in Bay City. It still can be found in wilderness locations in Canada and the western United States.

The Grayling Fish Hatchery Club, a group of sportsmen that included Henry and Edsel Ford, operated the hatchery as a private club from 1914 to 1921. Their goal was to restore grayling to the Au Sable and Manistee rivers and stock non-native trout to the same waters. But they didn't know that the trout would prevail over grayling in the competition for food and living space.

The club operated the hatchery in a partnership with the Michigan Department of Conservation from 1921 to 1926, when the state bought the hatchery for $10,000 and operated it until 1964. The DNR maintained offices there until 1990, then closed it and sold it to Crawford County for $1 in 1994, said Kevin Garrity of Grayling, co-chairman of the steering committee.

During its 50 years in operation, the hatchery raised and released more than 50 million brook, brown and rainbow trout into northern Michigan rivers and streams, Garrity said. The hatchery helped establish the Au Sable River as one of the best trout streams in North America, he said.

A state effort to reintroduce grayling to Michigan waters in the 1980s failed. "I recall they were planted in the Au Sable (River) below Mio and most of them turned up in the stomachs of brown trout," said the DNR's Baker, who was involved with the effort.

The steering committee has only scratched the surface of its fund-raising efforts; Garrity said the group has about $5,000. It hopes to raise $100,000 locally, seek out additional state and private grants and have the $1 million on hand by the end of 2005, Garrity said.

"We're trying to reach out to anybody with an interest in fly fishing," he said.

Tax-deductible donations can be sent to: Grayling Fish Hatchery, P.O. Box 1128, Grayling, MI 49738.

For most sport fishers in America, the Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus (Pallus)) is a rare freshwater game fish symbolic of the clear, cold streams of the northern wilderness. Grayling occur throughout the arctic as far west as the Kara and Ob rivers in Russia and east to the western shores of Hudson Bay in Canada. Once as common as far south as Michigan and Montana, the Arctic grayling has almost disappeared from the northern United States because of overfishing, competition from introduced species, and habitat loss.

General description: The Arctic grayling is an elegantly formed cousin of the trout. With its sail-like dorsal fin dotted with large iridescent red or purple spots, the grayling is one of the most unusual and beautiful fish of Alaska. Grayling are generally dark on the back and have iridescent gray sides. They have varying numbers of black spots scattered along the anterior portion of both sides. The adipose, caudal (tail), pectoral, and anal fins are dusky brown and the pelvic fins are often marked with pink to orange stripes.

Life history: Grayling have evolved many strategies to meet the needs of life in what are often harsh and uncertain environments. Grayling can be highly migratory, using different streams for spawning, juvenile rearing, summer feeding, and overwintering. Or, in other areas, they can complete their entire life without leaving a short section of stream or lake. Winter generally finds grayling in lakes or the lower reaches and deeper pools of medium-sized rivers such as the Chena and Gulkana, or in large glacial rivers like the Tanana, Susitna, and Yukon. Their tolerance of low dissolved oxygen levels allows grayling to survive the long winters in areas where many other salmonids would die. With the coming of spring, grayling begin an upstream migration to spawning grounds. Like salmon, grayling faithfully return every year to the same spawning and feeding areas. Grayling spawn for the first time at an age of 4 or 5 years and a length of about 11 to 12 inches.

About one month after spring breakup, adult grayling begin their post-spawning migration to summer feeding areas. Depending on where they have spawned, the distance traveled can be up to 100 miles. By the middle of summer, grayling will segregate within a stream according to age and maturity. The older adults will be found in the upper reaches of river and stream systems, the sub-adults in the middle, and the juveniles in the lower ends. Grayling fry hatch about three weeks after spawning, and they tend to occupy the quieter waters near where they were spawned. In the early fall, grayling again begin a leisurely downstream migration to reach overwintering areas.

Distribution: During the Ice Age, Arctic grayling survived in unglaciated areas of Alaska in the Yukon River valley and the North Slope. From there, they have spread throughout Alaska, except Kodiak, Southeast Alaska, and the Aleutians. Grayling have since been stocked into a few lakes in southeastern Alaska and on Kodiak Island.

Food habits: Grayling are generalists in their food habits, but drifting aquatic insects, especially mayflies, stone flies, and caddis flies are their primary food items. At times grayling will gorge upon the eggs of spawning salmon, outmigrating salmon smolts, terrestrial insects that have fallen into the water, or even an occasional vole or shrew!

Fishing: The tendency of grayling to eat almost anything endears them to the angling public. Any fishing technique, including bait, lures, and flies, will work at one time or another. Grayling are especially popular because of their willingness to rise to a dry fly. Flyfishing techniques for grayling are similar to those used for any trout species. Grayling are often easy to catch, but, as with other species, the most skilled anglers with the best knowledge of grayling feeding patterns and how to fish the water will be most successful. Generalized insect imitations such as the dry fly "Adams" and the "hare's ear nymph" are usually effective patterns for grayling. However, when feeding on a specific insect, grayling can be very finicky and the angler challenged to "match the hatch".

The largest grayling fisheries occur along the road system in Interior Alaska. However, larger-size fish are generally caught in less heavily fished areas. Over 70 percent of the trophy grayling (greater than 3 pounds) registered by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game come from the famous Ugashik Lake and river system of Bristol Bay. The state record grayling, 23 inches long and weighing 4 pounds 13 ounces, was caught in the Ugashik Narrows.

Michigan Grayling Only a Memory

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone," sang Joni Mitchell, a folksinger from the 1960s. This is an especially appropriate sentiment regarding the sad-but-true story of the grayling. Once a native fish species in Michigan, these fish now reside on the list of Michigan's extinct species.
Michigan's grayling were described as being especially lovely fish. Slate blue in color, they sported a particularly distinctive and graceful sail-like dorsal fin. In the 19th century, northern Michigan's streams literally teemed with them and lore has it that anglers from that time could sometimes catch three fish with one cast. Early historical accounts tell of grayling that "lay like cordwood in the AuSable." With our state as their only Midwestern home, Michigan grayling were descendants of fish that found a niche and thrived in our state's waters after the glaciers of the Ice Age receded.
Grayling were closely linked with the north woods and the image of beauty and romance attached to Michigan's then-untamed wilds, correctly associating them with unspoiled wilderness.
Sadly, Michigan's native grayling population died off more than a half-century ago. The last specimens were taken in the 1930s as part of a last-ditch effort to use human intervention to rescue the fish and keep it swimming our state's waters.
While some argue Michigan's grayling population was doomed anyway, the most evident factor in the species' disappearance was the cutting of Michigan's vast virgin forest in the 1800s. The wholesale harvest of trees brought with it logjams in the streams, as the wood was sent to mills for processing. The logjams scoured the streams and all but destroyed grayling spawning areas. Cutting the trees down also caused serious silting problems that literally choked the streams in which the grayling lived. Those streams, lacking the canopy of shade the bank-side trees once provided, soon became unsuitably warm for the grayling. The delicate balance of nature tipped and the little grayling, unable to adapt to the large-scale changes facing it, began to disappear.
Another factor which contributed to the grayling's demise was the introduction of non-native trout species to Michigan's waters. The non-aggressive grayling just couldn't compete with fish such as the European brown trout and rainbow trout. Serious over fishing also contributed to the grayling's fall. Civil War-era accounts tell of people harvesting grayling by the basketfuls and hauling them home by the wagonload. There were no established take limits and catch and release was practically unheard of.
Happily, not all of North America's grayling have suffered the same fate as Michigan's population. These sleek fish can still be found in small pockets of the western United States and up in Alaska. They actually thrive in the waters of Canada's western provinces. In fact, a number of attempts have been made to re-establish the grayling in Michigan using fish from these other populations. The most recent attempt was in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, while noble, these efforts were fruitless. Faced with today's lack of suitable habitat and serious competition from rival species, successful reintroduction of Michigan's grayling population seems quite unlikely. This cold, hard fact leaves today's anglers to think about the glories of the past and vow that such destruction of our state's aquatic habitat and the loss of one of our valued species must never happen again. The richness and diversity of Michigan's resource heritage depends on it.
Anglers: Chances are very remote that you will ever catch a grayling in Michigan, but if you do, you must return it to the water immediately!

Source:

World Record
1967 - 5 pounds,15 ounces, caught in the Katseyedie River, Northwest Territories.

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