Syracuse.com - New $4.5 million research vessel helps U.S.Geological Survey staff study Lake Ontario fishery (includes video)

[HuntingNY-News]

The new 70-foot boat — equipped with state- of-the-art and computer-controlled winches, sonar, radar and navigational devices — makes things a lot easier. Watch video

The R.V. Kaho helps the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center's Lake Ontario Biological Station monitor the ever-changing fish populations of Lake Ontario. John Berry/The Post-Standard The RV Kaho, a new $4.25 million research vessel docked at Oswego Harbor and affiliated with the Lake Ontario Biological Station, took off Wednesday morning on a historic mission.

The boat contained a 375-gallon tank holding 1,250 deepwater cisco, a once-native baitfish that the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with state and Canadian officials, is trying to reintroduce in the lake.

“We’re going to go a little northeast toward the deepest portion of the lake,” said Brian Lantry, chief of the biological field station. “These fish are adapted to vertical migration. We’re giving them a better chance of survival by getting them out and beyond shoreline predators.”

The project, the first of its kind, is one of many the U.S.G.S. staff is conducting on the lake with the help of the craft. The new 70-foot boat — equipped with state- of-the-art and computer-controlled winches, sonar, radar and navigational devices — makes things a lot easier, Lantry said.

It replaces the original Kaho, which was been used for than 30 years during research projects on the lake, serving state, federal and Canadian officials.

The new Kaho, one of two that were recently built in Cleveland, Ohio, was paid for by the American Resources and Re-Investment Act, a stimulus initiative under the Obama administration, Lantry said. The other new identical boat, is currently docked on Lake Erie.

Lantry said keeping tabs on Lake Ontario’s fishery does have substantial economic implications.

“Lake Ontario’s sport fisheries are a significant economic driver in New York State, and were valued at more than $113 million in 2007,” DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said recently.

As the boat headed out into the lake, Lantry gave a tour of its features. They include:

ÖFive, computer-controlled winches, which radically improve the boat’s netting and sampling capabilities. The old boat, he said, was mainly a stern trawler, dragging nets from the back, with limited gill-netting capabilities. The new boat is better equipped for gill netting, has winches capable of hauling up much bigger loads and can lower and raise electronic devices – something that couldn’t have been done before.

- An aluminum hull, which makes the boat lighter and faster. It displaces less water and can get into marinas, docks and other places on the lake that the older, heavier boat couldn’t. It’s also set up for hydroacoustics for sonar purposes “It was custom- built to minimize noise to the tranducers. The bubble sweeping noise is minimal (when the boat is moving),” he added.

- A bridge complete with a dizzying array of electronics. They give the captain complete control of the boat and its activities. Features include two radar systems, an auto-pilot system, a satellite compass, a regular navigational compass and a computer system that ties everything together.

Lantry said his staff does routine and long-terms assessments aimed at evaluating and preserving the lake’s prey fish, such as alewives, smelt and sculpins, in addition to tracking the progress of efforts to restore the lake trout population.

“In between those long-term assessments, we do a lot of pointed research on problems in the system,” he said.

For example, his staff is evaluating the impact of hemimysis, or “bloody red shrimp,” an invasive that was first discovered in the lake in 2006.

“It sits in the middle of the food chain and is capable of taking some of the energy that was going to go to the larger fish,” he said.

Next year, Lantry said, the RV Kaho will be a key player in a “huge food web study” on the lake.

“Every five years, the lake gets an extensive study,” he said. “There’s a lot of resources thrown at this broad-based research that looks at everything from nutrients all the way up to the predator fish.”

Capt. Terry Lewchaninprepares to pilot the research vessel Kaho out onto Lake Ontario. John Berry/The Post-Standard

Wednesday morning, the center of the attention was the stocking of the deepwater cisco, which will be a long-term project. The collaborative effort between state, federal and Canadian agencies is designed to restore a once-native baitfish. It’s all about giving the big fish (salmon and trout) in Lake Ontario something else to feed on in the lake’s deep water, and in the process increasing the success rate of their spawning.

Lake trout and salmon that feed primarily on alewives can experience reproductive failure due to a vitamin B deficiency, caused by the chemical thiamanase in that baitfish. Fish that feed on native species like deepwater cisco, though, are less likely to experience problems with their eggs and fry.

The deepwater cisco were brought up to Oswego from the U.S.G.S. Tunison Lab in Cortland and deepwater ciso, where they had been raised from eggs obtained from Lake Michigan.

As the boat came to a stop, the tank holding the baitfish was opened up and he fish were released.

Back on the bridge, two different sonar screens monitored their progress. Within 5 minutes, a stream of them was visible at about 200 feet.

“Look at them go,” one crew member said.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog