CROTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Below the Croton Dam, the Michigan DNR collected walleye eggs from the Muskegon River on Thursday, working to bolster the state's sport fish population.
"No place I'd rather be," said Mark Tonello, a fisheries biologist for the DNR. "Maybe a little chilly today. Hands were a little cold."
Working on an electrofishing boat, Tonello and other members of the DNR trolled up and down the river, shocking unsuspecting walleye with an electrical current, temporarily stunning the fish and allowing them to be caught with a net.
"I always tell everybody, I have my dream job," Tonello said. "The northwest part of the Lower Peninsula is a dream area."
Downriver at the Pine Street boat launch, the department stripped previously-caught female walleye, pressing down on their bellies to release their eggs into a bowl.
The eggs were then fertilized with milt from male walleye, mixed together by hand in a separate bowl and combined with fuller's earth, a type of clay that keeps the eggs from clumping together.
"If we didn't do the egg take, then we wouldn't have walleye to stock rivers and lakes," Tonello said.
Finally, the fertilized eggs are placed in the river for a few hours, allowing them to harden.
"Really, it's an honor to do this today," Tonello said.
On Thursday, the Michigan DNR caught fifty females and additional males, fertilizing an estimated nine to ten million eggs. The catch-and-release program is part of a multi-day effort to raise at least eight million fry— recently hatched fish— for eventual release.
In time, these fish may return to the Muskegon River, restarting the process of life all over again.
"I know how passionate other folks are about catching walleye," said Tonello. "It's so important to be able to do what we do."
