21 / Soo Views

At the east end of the powerhouse, a hardcopy welcome from the LSSU Aquatic Research Laboratory, which I took full advantage of.

The lab, under the utterly capable direction and promotion of Mr. Roger Greil, is an acutely scientific but surprisingly simple, smooth operation designed to reproduce Atlantic salmon for the stocking of both the St. Mary’s waterway, and beautiful Torch Lake in northwest Lower Michigan. The facility will soon relocate to and expand in the opposite end of the building, to possibly include a small public aquarium (as part of an interpretive display of sorts, I would guess, or at least hope). Please click the link for the LSSU “fish cam” on the links page of this site, plan on visiting the lab yourself in the future, and consider a cash contribution, either online or even in person, to these wonderful efforts!

My own tour guide was Daniel Operhall, a LSSU fisheries student who’s fittingly crazy (like myself) about all aspects of the Atlantics, including the local sport scene. Daniel concisely delivered the layman’s lowdown about the complete hatchery process, delighting me most by his revelations of natural reproduction (albeit extremely limited), which he believes is most likely occurring in the remnants of the St. Mary’s Rapids that hug the Canadian side of the river.

Naturally, I forgot to take Dan’s mug shot—sorry about that, Dude, I’ll catch you next time, preferably in your post-grad DNR garb.