(WXYZ) — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said fish stocking is taking place in hundreds of lakes and streams across the state.
According to the DNR, there is a fleet of 18 specialist fish-stocking vehicles that are used to stock more than 20 million fish annually, weighing more than 350 tons.
Species stocked include: steelhead; Atlantic, Chinook and coho salmon; splake (a hybrid of brook and lake trout) and brown, brook, lake and rainbow trout; muskellunge and walleye.
The stocking begins in mid-March and ends in early June, and officials say the stocking trucks will travel over 100,000 miles to stock more than 1,000 locations.
According to the department, fish stocking is a valuable tool for fisheries managers, and can be used to provide a range of fishing opportunities, restore balance to ecosystems, rehabilitate fish populations and more.
“In some cases, stocking would be unnecessary or even detrimental to a lake or stream or to fish populations,” Jeremiah Blaauw, DNR fish marking and stocking biologist, said. “If a fish population is producing well naturally and in alignment with angling demand and management goals for that species, we don’t stock on top of those wild populations.”
You can see the latest information on fish stocking at the DNR's fish stocking database.
