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Great news.  This will prevent our spring coho from gorging on them this spring.  Lack of 1st year alewives will do that.

Edit: this is not true per later response

I don't understand. What's being done?

Here's a news release going out to media outlets around Indiana.  

NET PEN PARTNERSHIP SET TO IMPROVE SALMON STOCKING AT EAST CHICAGO

A project to improve the results of chinook (king) salmon stockings at the East Chicago Marina in 2024 and future years had been instigated by Lake County Fish and Game Protection Association (LCFGPA), Indiana’s oldest conservation club. LCFGPA recently got the final approvals from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Anthony Copeland, Mayor of East Chicago, IN and Natalie Adams, Director of the East Chicago Marina.

Chinook salmon are often called king salmon because they are destined to become the biggest, meanest, most exciting fish to catch in Lake Michigan. Kings also face the toughest early life of any of the other salmon and trout in the lake.

Perhaps it’s a case of “only the strong survive.”Most of the salmon and trout in Lake Michigan are born in a fish hatchery and reared in near-perfect conditions, with a consistent supply of food and no threat of predators like bigger fish or hungry birds gobbling them up.

Unlike coho salmon which are about a year old and seven inches long when they are taken from the safety and easy life of the hatchery and planted into a Lake Michigan tributary; unlike steelhead, brown trout and lake trout which often spend even more time in a hatchery before being stocked, the kings that hatch from eggs in October are only kept in the hatchery over the winter months before being stocked in Indiana’s three Lake Michigan counties as tiny “minnows” barely more than 3 ½ inches long.

At this size, even panfish like crappies or perch as well as larger predators like bass can easily catch and eat them. When birds, like gulls, terns and cormorants find a school of newly stocked salmon, they summon their feathered friends to join a feeding frenzy that lasts until the smolts (the proper name for baby salmon) escape to the depths.The survivors of the stocking process are the king salmon that will live and grow in the big lake for the next 3 ½ years, maturing to instinctively return to the locations where they were stocked. By the time they are two years old they are at the top of the lake’s food chain, and by the time they are mature, each one can be the fish of a lifetime for the lucky or skilled angler who hooks one.

Until now in Indiana, once the king salmon smolts are grown to the right stage of development, they are loaded into hatchery trucks then hauled quickly to the stocking sites where they are literally poured into the water. From there, it’s “get tough or die.”  Angler dollars support the DNR hatcheries and each salmon that doesn’t survive is angler money wasted.

This year, at East Chicago in Lake County, IN when it’s time to stock the 3 ¾-inch salmon fingerlings, 37,500 of them will be released into a large, floating cage, called a net pen which will be located inside the East Chicago Marina. The fish will be stocked a few weeks prior to when they would otherwise be planted. Volunteers from Lake County Fish and Game Protection Association will feed the fish three times per day while the baby fish are in the pen, monitoring the water quality and health of the fish inside all through the period.  The net pen fish will be safe from predator fish and birds and for the three weeks or so they will be in the pen and all the while, they will be imprinting to the location of the harbor and memorizing the unique smells in the water in this area. When they are mature fish, it’s this imprinting that will lead them back to the vicinity of the East Chicago Marina – predictably in September and October of 2027. Anglers, mark your calendars.

Members of LCFGPA extends a hearty thanks to the Indiana DNR for technical assistance and agreeing to the project; as well as to Mayor Copeland and Director Adams for allowing the project to be sited at the East Chicago Marina. The net pen is currently under construction and will be positioned in the marina by April first.  The exact date of the stocking will be determined at a later date by the Mixsawbah State Fish Hatchery manager, depending on biological factors. The date the pen will be opened so the smolts can begin their life in the wild will depend on their final development in the pens. That’s expected to be about three weeks. 

For further information contact:John Dembowski, LCFGPA
219-730-9135
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Start wrote:

Great news.  This will prevent our spring coho from gorging on them this spring.  Lack of 1st year alewives will do that.

Just to be clear, net pens will not really do anything to prevent mortality from fish predation out in the big lake proper. What they do is protect from predation in the harbor during the few days post-stocking

Once the fish are free swimming out in the lake they are fair game and if there aren't alewife inshore, they'll still get eaten just the same as a non-penned fish

MC_Angler, thanks for keeping idiots like me in check.

Start Paddling,
I see a fisherman with passion for the sport with your comments. You understand that those young kings are getting predated on by more predators then we have concerned ourselves with.
So high five, your opened minded.
Ben keeps many of us in check.          
With out bait coverage in the spring, it's game on for the predators including Coho. With East Chicago being a marina stocking close to a large colony of Cormorants makes it a perfect candidate for a net pen.
Which gives me the lead in to the Indiana Lake Michigan Fisheries Workshop. This year a big focus will be on the lake wide forage base. Where we have been historically and where we are in today's lake.
Also, I have asked Capt. John Warren to speak on the net pen project. It's important to understand how much work has gone on to this point, and how much more yet to come. A team working in a co-operative partnership to try to help make improvements when possible.
Hope you can make the workshop there will be alot of good information shared.

I assume these will be released at night once they've imprinted?  Do they have to be released inside the marina per se once they've imprinted? Can the pen be "towed" out a mile or so in the lake and then opened for their release?  Maybe these won't have any effect, just wondering. I know pens have been around for quite awhile, and don't think studies on them were always real favorable, sure hope this shows promise for our returns on this end as I'm sure the coho club and others would happily join in on pens in MC and Portage.

From what I have been to understand on this issue. Yes, release will be after the sun goes down. The smolts can be released outside of the marina. I don't think towing the  net pen will be towed at any length. There really isn't a need for that. This will be a 5 year study, that will be closely looked at.
Half of the stocking for EC will be net penned , and the other half will be direct stocked. Both Michigan and Wisconsin have been using net pens were needed for a number of years now.
Of the 3 stocking sites. Only EC is getting hit on when stocked by the birds. The birds will hit on the smolts when they move out into the lake and there is no way to stop that at that time. Net pens are not perfect, but have been a helping tool in the right scenario. 

Brother Nature, That is a great right up.

forgot to mention, that the stocking at EC as mentioned half will be direct stocked and half will be net penned. Both groups will have their own way of being marked.
After the study is done Ben will have to evaluate the stocking.. How did each group perform? Did the net pen fish out perform the direct stocked or did direct stocked out perform the net pen fish?
Should be a very interesting study.