These Shimmery Fish Disappeared From Michigan Nearly a Century Ago. Can They Make a Comeback?
Great Lakes tribes and state biologists are working together to reintroduce Arctic grayling to northern Michigan’s waterways
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Arctic grayling were once so abundant in Michigan’s rivers that European settlers named a city after them: Grayling, a small town located along the Au Sable River. But these silvery-blue fish haven’t been seen in Michigan’s waters for nearly a century: Habitat destruction and invasive species caused them to disappear in 1936.
Now, the state and local Native American tribes are trying to reintroduce Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) to Michigan’s coldwater streams. They hope to establish a wild, self-sustaining population of the native species, which holds deep cultural and historical significance to the region’s Indigenous Anishinabe people. They call the fish “Nmégos.”
“This is one of those fish … that were here when the tribe’s ancestors were here,” says Dan Mays, a biologist with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, to Interlochen Public Radio’s Ellie Katz. “[They were] interacting with those fish, and it’s important to reconnect that interaction with the people and the fish and the environment.”
Arctic grayling are members of the salmon family. With a large, sail-like dorsal fin protruding from their backs and shimmery scales, these fish have a distinctive appearance. They’re usually a little more than a foot long, but they can grow up to 30 inches, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The heaviest Arctic grayling on record weighed 8.4 pounds.
These flashy fish float in rivers and streams in northern regions, including Canada, Alaska and Montana. Before going extinct locally, they lived in Michigan’s northern Manistee and Au Sable rivers.
“Grayling were kings in the northern Lower Peninsula prior to their extirpation,” said Ed Eisch, the fisheries production manager at the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to Michigan Public Radio’s Beth Weiler last year. “They’re kind of an iconic species.”
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The reintroduction project has been in the works since 2016, when the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians teamed up with the DNR. Since then, more than 50 other partners have joined the effort, called the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative.
In recent years, the DNR has been working to establish an Arctic grayling broodstock, a group of mature adults that reproduce and sustain the population. Wildlife biologists have been traveling to Alaska since 2019 to collect Arctic grayling eggs. That first year, they brought roughly 10,000 eggs back to Michigan, where they raised the fish in hatcheries.
Now that those creatures have reached reproductive age, the project can enter its next phase. In May, biologists plan to hand over roughly 400,000 fertilized eggs to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
Members of those tribes will then distribute the eggs in the Manistee River, the Maple River and the Boardman-Ottaway River, which are located on Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Narrowed down from a list of 20 rivers, these are the waterways biologists have determined will give the young fish the best chances of survival.
When tribal members finally release the eggs, it’s likely to be an emotional occasion.
“We’ve lost so much of that culture and connection to the world that was there,” says Archie Martell, fisheries division manager for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, to Bridge Michigan’s Kelly House. “Bringing that back is just … it’s kind of overwhelming to actually get to this point.”
Past efforts to reintroduce Arctic grayling have been unsuccessful. But the project’s leaders say new technologies and methods have increased the fishes’ chances of survival. For example, wildlife biologists will use custom streamside incubators to help the Arctic grayling hatchlings imprint on their birth waters, to which they will hopefully return to spawn.
Once the eggs hatch, the baby fish will “swim up into the river and be fending for themselves and be in the big world all alone,” says Alex Ontkos, an inland fisheries biologist with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, to Fox 2 Detroit’s Jack Nissen.
Then it becomes a waiting game. Officials will cross their fingers and hope that, come autumn, they find two-inch-long juveniles darting around Michigan’s northern waterways. If all goes as planned, the fish will reach sexual maturity around 2029 and will return to their birth rivers to produce the next generation of Arctic grayling.
“This isn’t a sprint,” Eisch told Michigan Public Radio last year. “It’s going to take probably a decade at least before we can say with confidence we’ve been successful or we haven’t.”
In November 2023, the state also released some 1,800 surplus Arctic grayling into three lakes in northern Michigan. Wildlife biologists don’t expect those individuals to reproduce but, as they mature, the fish will be available for anglers to catch and release.
