Michigan Arctic grayling's reintroduction effort nearing major milestone in 2025

An Arctic grayling at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana. (Photo via Andrew Gilham, USFWS)
(FOX 2) - More than a hundred years has passed since someone caught an Arctic grayling in Michigan waters. The beloved fish died out amid extreme pressures from industry, predation, and overfishing.
Now, years of planning, millions of dollars, new inventions, and unprecedented cooperation among nearly 50 stakeholders could turn the near-impossible dream of local anglers into reality.
This year marks the closest that Michigan has gotten to reintroducing Arctic grayling back into its streams. And even after the Alaska-caught eggs are placed into pre-selected streams in the northern Lower Peninsula, years of work will remain.
That's why even Michigan's most seasoned fishermen are holding their breath about what comes next.
"Maybe they do wonderful. Maybe it's a novelty. Maybe it (only works) in two to three places," said Michigan Trout Unlimited Executive Director Bryan Burroughs. Even the most optimistic people have moderated their expectations for what could happen next, he's heard.
"Can they survive? That poses a hard proposition."
Restablishing Arctic grayling: Planting a flag
Big picture view:
The decline of Arctic grayling began when people flocked to Michigan in the early 1800s. But it was the appetite of the state's logging industry that spelled eventual doom for the fish species.
As waves of floating logs altered rivers, removing habitat and changing water temperatures, nonnative species outcompeted the Arctic grayling while an unregulated fishing industry made survival impossible.
It was a "perfect storm" of environmental changes and unregulated fishing, said Alex Ontkos, an inland fisheries biologist with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.
Ontkos and the Ottawa Indians are leading the reintroduction effort in the Manistee River - one of three selected as future homes for Arctic grayling. Beginning this May, his team will place thousands of eggs in several housing units called incubators, which will be positioned within a two-mile stretch of the North Branch of the river.

DNR fisheries chief Ed Eisch cradles an Arctic grayling. (Photo courtesy of Ed Eisch)
The strategy is informed by past mistakes, new technology, and a better understanding of the fish they're trying to establish.
"This isn't just one of the bigger things in fishery science in the state of Michigan, it's one of the biggest things in fishery science in the U.S.," said Ontkos.
This isn't the first time Michigan has tried to reintroduce Arctic grayling. Before 2025, the most recent attempt ended in the early 90s after the fish that were added to streams disappeared.
This current rendition stretches back to 2016 when biologists with the DNR pitched the idea. For Ed Eisch, the assistant director of the department's fisheries division, who was there when the latest effort was spawned, achieving a self-sustaining population would be a "planting flag" moment for Michigan.
"We obviously went the wrong direction back then - but we've turned it around and are seeing much better water quality than 50 years ago," he said. "It's a beautiful fish and (reintroducing it) would show how far we've come in improving our water."
Reintroducing Arctic Grayling: A science experiment
The backstory:
In crafting their strategy, Michigan officials looked out west for a guide.
In previous efforts, the DNR raised Arctic grayling in a controlled environment and then released them into the wild. This glossed over a key stage in the species' early lifecycle,
Many fish need to imprint on their surroundings when they hatch. The unique chemical signature of the site they're born into will become home, with the smells and sights helping them identify where home is.
Eisch credited officials in Montana with connecting the dots.
"We're just scratching the surface of what imprinting in fish means," he said. "It happens in many species, like northern muskies, walleyes, lake sturgeon, and now we know it happens in grayling. The folks in Montana figured that out."
Michigan is also borrowing from Montana its use of incubators to house the eggs - but with a modified twist. The original incubator makes use of PVC pipes and five-gallon buckets that channel water from the river into the contraption. When the eggs hatch, the fry swim out of the incubator and into the river.
Because Michigan's streams aren't as steep as Montana's, the same technique would require thousands of feet of plumbing in some areas.
"It would take half a mile of plumbing to do what they're doing in Montana, which is kind of a problem," said Troy Zorn, a DNR fisheries biologist. "So we tried some other ways and eventually turned to YouTube."
One video they found showed a different way of incubating fish eggs.
Instead of a five-gallon bucket being fed by a running river, the Arctic grayling reintroduction plan uses a submerged basket. Scientists found success after testing the modified incubator with rainbow trout eggs.
Dig deeper:
While Montana is closer, Michigan opted to source the incoming Arctic graying eggs from Alaska, storing them at the DNR's fish hatchery in Marquette.
The batch will then be split into three groups, each bound for a different river that will be overseen by a specific indigenous tribe:
The Ottawa Indians at the Manistee River, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians at the Maple River, and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians at the Boardman-Ottaway River.
Each river picked had previously held Arctic grayling when the species was self-sustaining, had support among those who live nearby, and could be monitored by the respective tribes.
Each tribe will be tasked with dividing up approximately 400,000 eggs within their selected river. They will spend the following two weeks watching over the eggs.
"Once they hatch, they'll swim up into the river and be fending for themselves and be in the big world all alone," said Ontkos.
‘The timing is right’
What they're saying:
When the DNR started discussing efforts, the idea "caught fire" with dozens of organizations and people who later partnered on the project, Eisch said.
Supporters ranged from U.S. Senators and high schools, to state departments, indigenous tribes, universities, fishing federations, and conservation groups.
But even with excitement, the project's leaders knew one of the biggest challenges was going to be funding. With little available in the budget, the DNR has relied on private investment and charitable donations to buoy the effort.
Help has come in all forms, including large grants and small funds, like collaboration from Iron Fish Distillery in the northwest corner of the state. They donate proceeds from batches of whiskey that incorporate labels designed by the Great Lakes artist Dani Knoph.
"It aligns with our values of responsible stewardship of natural resources," said Troy Anderson, the distillery's marketing chief. "The opportunity to be involved in something that could result in the successful reintroduction of a native species is right up our alley."
Three different releases of bourbon and rye whiskeys have helped celebrate the initiative, raising around $25,000.
Other benefactors include the Henry E. N Consuela Wenger foundation, led by boardmember Charles Wilson.
The first pot of money from the foundation went to a Michigan State University Ph.D. student researching competition and predation of Arctic grayling, which would eventually inform which rivers are best suited to house the desired fish.

Iron Fish Distillery unveiled this batch of rye whiskey in honor of the Arctic grayling effort. It includes designs from Dani Knoph, who paints wildlife art from the Great Lakes (Photo courtesy of Troy Anderson.)
Wilson was drawn to the effort because of his interest in environmental issues. But his experience has also taught him to temper his expectations about the effort.
"I always say, there are no guarantees this time around that these efforts will result in a self-sustaining population of grayling, but I think we have a reasonable chance of success," he said.
What is success?:
Whether the fish survive will be an open question for years. The first to hatch won't reach sexual maturity for up to seven years. By then, the endeavor will have stretched into 2030.
But, whether the fish are self-sustaining by then is the wrong benchmark for measuring success, Michigan Trout Unlimited's Bryan Burrough says.
The way he sees it, the project's success has less to do with whether the fish are established and more about what those involved learn from both the initiative's achievements and its failures.
"The only way you screw up is if you don't learn from it," he said. "The effort in the 70s was considered a failure, but because they failed to learn why they didn't succeed."
Instead, the way Burroughs sees it, the most important thing that can happen is to learn from what unfolds and apply those lessons to future work.
The Source: Information from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was used in reporting this story.