Enhancing Kiyi (Coregonus kiyi) research to support the conservation and restoration of deep-water coregonine diversity in the Laurentian Great Lakes – Year 2

Amanda Ackiss (USGS, aackiss@usgs.gov), Kris Dey (Little traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians), Marc Chalupnicki (USGS), Jamie Dobosenski (TNC), Matt Herbert (TNC), Jason Smith (Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), Joseph Tolles (Little traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians), Mark Vinson (USGS), Kelsi Wygant (Little traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians)

In FY22, we received one year of GLRI funding to explore the feasibility of making and rearing Kiyi or Kiyi-hybrid crosses for the establishment of research stocks at the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians (LTBB) Hatchery, Ann Arbor wet lab (AA), and Tunison-Lake Ontario Biological Station wet lab (T-LOBS). The abundance of Kiyi in Lake Superior makes it a high-value gamete source for restoring extirpated populations in Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Ontario, and managers (especially in Lake Ontario) have indicated interest in reintroducing Kiyi should feasibility be demonstrated and concerns about hybridization with other deep-water coregonines reduced. However, the reproductive timing of Kiyi in Lake Superior (late December-late January, Vinson et al. 2023) makes the success of wild crosses for egg collection challenging due to the unpredictable nature of weather and sea conditions during winter. During this period, USGS research vessels are overwintered (lacking ice-breaking capabilities) so reliance on commercial fishers for these efforts is required. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has contracted with a fisher in Munising, MI since 2016 to survey deep-water ciscoes annually off Grand Island in Lake Superior. However, in winter 2021-2022 weather conditions off Munising were unsafe to even attempt preliminary fish health sampling, and in winter 2022-2023 after completion of preliminary fish health sampling on Dec. 13th, persistent unsafe weather conditions and a boat electrical system failure prevented attempts at wild crosses. The unpredictable weather outcomes of the past two winters has led the PIs to identify new options for maximizing opportunities to bring wild Kiyi into the hatchery and wet labs to achieve the originally proposed objectives. First, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has contracted with a second commercial fisher, Keith Peterson, operating out of Bayfield, WI in order to diversify potential collection areas and weather windows. Keith is a 4th generation fisher with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and recently retired after 3 decades with USGS at the Lake Superior Biological Station, bringing a vast amount of additional knowledge to the collection of spawning Kiyi for making crosses. Additionally, PIs have taken advantage of existing projects to explore several different methods to collect mixed ciscoe larvae as a method for bringing live Kiyi into the hatcheries and labs. During spring 2023 mid-water trawls on the RV Kiyi, scientists made several attempts to keep larvae alive from scheduled neuston surveys, unfortunately with no success. In July 2023, when Kiyi larvae have been documented in surface waters in Lake Superior (Lachance et al. 2021, Vinson et al. unpublished), PIs Dey, Tolles, Wygant conducted opportunistic trial small boat plankton tows and larval light traps over several weeks in the northwestern region of Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior for live larvae collection. On July 12th, night neuston tows captured 30 larvae (8-12mm) of which 12 survived transport to the LTBB hatchery These field tests are on-going, and any collected larvae will be reared at the LTBB Hatchery until Kiyi can be distinguished from other ciscoes without sacrifice via juvenile pelvic fin length and/or non-lethal adipose fin clips and genetic ID (~10-12mos post-collection). Finally, PIs have partnered with FWS & USGS scientists on a FY23 GLRI grant that will attempt to collect juvenile Bloater and Kiyi via trawls deploying specialized ‘Aloutte’ and ‘Mamou’ nets (Hanson et al. FY23. “Deep-water Coregonine Captive Broodstock Developed from Wild-caught Juveniles: Initial Proof of Concept “). In this project, successfully collected age-1s were originally planned to be euthanized after holding for 8 weeks as proof-of-concept at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery isolation facility. Now, the LTBB Hatchery and AA wet lab will be accepting any deepwater ciscoes that are still alive after the 8-week holding period at Genoa. Pilot collections for this project have been shifted to late May 2024 following a delay in receipt of the specialized nets required for live collection, therefore, the LTBB Hatchery and AA wet lab anticipate receiving potential deepwater ciscoes – including Kiyi – from this partnership in late July or early August 2024. FY22 funds for genetic IDs and wet lab supplies for AA and T-LOBS are available for continuing efforts. Here, AA and LTBB request FY24 funding to support travel for field work and fish transport to support this diversified attempt for new collections and partnerships with on-going projects to maximize opportunities for the establishment of experimental Kiyi stocks. Additionally, FY24 funds are requested for continued support of a student contractor at the AA wet lab and technicians at the LTBB Hatchery. Both facilities received 6mos of FY22 funding, and over the past 1.5yrs these funds have been leveraged with matching support to hire technicians that have supported: 1) ongoing care and husbandry of deepwater coregonines including Bloater (n=~200) and Kiyi-Bloater hybrids (n=7) from winter 2020-2021 collections at AA, 2) the preparation of tank systems for multi-family, multi-temperature tests (AA and LTBB), and 3) field efforts to collect Kiyi eggs and/or larvae (LTBB). We anticipate these funds to be depleted by early spring 2024. With the broadened efforts for Kiyi collection in both winter 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, we anticipate needing ongoing support for the care any eggs produced from wild cross attempts planned during these winters as well as larvae from collections in summers 2023 and 2024.