The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has commissioned a new 66-foot, steel-hulled research vessel to monitor Lake Michigan's fisheries and aquatic ecosystem.
The new boat, called the RV Steelhead, was commissioned on Wednesday in Charlevoix, which will serve as the vessel’s home port. The Steelhead is replacing an older DNR research vessel, which officials say was nearing the end of its usable life.
The Steelhead boasts several new safety and efficiency upgrades, including improved navigation equipment, a gyrostabilizer, a bow thruster and a multi-use stern platform. It also features state-of-the-art sampling equipment and a brand new solar charging system.
“The importance and meaning of this new vessel to Fisheries Division and the DNR cannot be overstated,” DNR Fisheries Division Chief Randy Claramunt said in a news release. “Lake Michigan is one of the largest freshwater lakes on the planet, and the RV Steelhead and crew will serve as the State of Michigan’s primary means to collect data and inform fisheries management decisions on this Great Lake.”
The vessel will primarily be used for the DNR’s regular lake surveys — including their spring gill net survey, lakewide acoustic forage fish survey and bottom trawl survey — and monitoring invasive species.
The DNR’s regular surveys of aquatic life play an important part in monitoring the health of the Great Lakes’ ecosystem and fisheries, vessel captain Pat O’Neill told Michigan Public.
“We want to keep a handle on the health of the fish,” O’Neill said. “So we're going to use those as indicators of what that population is doing. Are they happy? Are they struggling because of something going on? The best way to manage is to have an idea of what direction maybe the ecosystem or the fish [or] a species is experiencing. If there's something we can do as managers to mitigate a potential problem that's coming, we're going to do our best to do that.”
The Steelhead was designed by Boksa Marine Design and constructed by Moran Iron Works in partnership with Superior Boats. It was funded by appropriations in the state budget bills for 2023 and 2025 by the Michigan Legislature, along with grant funding from Great Lakes Fishery Trust.
