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

Amanda Ackiss (USGS, aackiss@usgs.gov), Kris Dey (Little traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians), Marc Chalupnicki (USGS), Michael Diefenbach (Little traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians), Matt Herbert (TNC), Andrew Honsey (USGS), Gary Michaud (Little traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians), Brian O’Malley (USGS), Jason Smith (Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians)

The abundance of the deepwater preyfish Kiyi (Coregonus kiyi) in Lake Superior makes it a high-value target for restoring extirpated populations in Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Ontario. Managers from several Great Lakes have informally indicated strong interest in reintroducing Kiyi should feasibility of establishing viable hatchery stocks be demonstrated. From 2022 to present, partners on this project have explored several options for the establishment of research and hatchery stocks of Kiyi at the Little Traverse Bay Band hatchery and the USGS’s Ann Arbor and Tunison-Lake Ontario Biological Station (T-LOBS) wet labs. Gill net collections of wild spawning Kiyi in Lake Superior off Munising, MI were attempted every winter starting December 2022 via a commercial fisher contract supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Spawning Kiyi collections proved extremely difficult and ultimately unsuccessful, hampered by challenges including the long distance from shore to deepwater Kiyi spawning habitat during unpredictable winter weather windows and competition with exceptionally productive nearshore Lake Whitefish fisheries (a safer and more lucrative option for commercial fishers during the winter period). Currently, one research stock of 27 Bloater (F) x Kiyi (M) hybrids from wild crosses is maintained at the T-LOBS (n=24) and Ann Arbor (n=3) wet labs. In addition to spawning Kiyi collection efforts, nearshore larval tows and light trap collections targeting larval Kiyi were attempted in the Whitefish Bay region in summer 2023 and in the Whitefish Point and Munising area in summer of 2024. These efforts were not directly funded by grant support and were opportunistic in nature, ultimately proving unsuccessful in collecting larval ciscoes such as Kiyi in the shoreline waters of Lake Superior. TNC contracts with two fishers for the collection of spawning Kiyi remain active, and grant PIs are collaborating in 2025 with USGS and USFWS partners on new efforts to collect live juvenile and adult Kiyi at night while they are feeding in surface waters with a specialized “Aluette” midwater trawl net that is capable of targeting young-of-year through 2-3 year class fish.