River wins thousands of world-class Atlantic salmon grown at LSSU

Lake Superior State University’s hatchery program saw its first returns in 1990 and soon began collecting eggs from returning salmon.

Twenty-seven thousand Atlantic salmon were released from a spawning hatchery on the St. Mary’s River this week. The publication honored Martin Vanderpleog for donating $ 1 million to the Lake Superior State University’s Freshwater Research and Education Center (CFRE).

The donation will go to research and education for Atlantic salmon and a gifted position in the faculty.

“I’ve been hunting LSSU Atlantic salmon for decades,” Vanderpleog said, after helping free the salmon from reservoirs called race tracks. “LSSU has created a unique fishery in the upper Great Lakes and with the new CFRE it is creating a world-class research center, I can proudly help my growth.”

Highly valued worldwide for its sporting characteristics, Atlantic salmon now thrives on the St. Mary’s River, the connecting waterway that drains Lake Superior and empties into Lake Huron.

Despite several false starts – the Atlantic Oceans are delicate fish, vulnerable to disease and environmental constraints – the Lake Superior State University hatchery program saw its first returns in 1990 and soon began collecting eggs from returning salmon. Until 2004, it began using only the Atlantic Ocean of the St. Mary’s River to fertilize eggs and raise fish for release.

Atlantic salmon released from the laboratory are always marked with trimmed pectoral or ventral fins. The pectoral fins are just behind the gills on the left and right sides of the body. The ventral fins are lower, outside the abdomen of the fish and further back on the body, around the middle between the head and the tail.

For Vanderpleog, his donation – in memory of his father Marvin – is a way of life that he continues to maintain.

“This program allows students and young people to reconnect with the natural world,” he said. “Today’s technology is at your fingertips. We cannot allow this to happen at the expense of personal experience. The work that CFRE and this hatchery are doing keeps our passion for the outdoors alive. ”