Fisheries Surveys

The MN DNR conducts fishery surveys at different time intervals largely depending on the size of a lake.  If your favorite lake is not surveyed as often as you'd like it to be, we can help.  Having done ride alongs with the DNR on their surveys and being provided their standard operating procedures, we can fill in data gaps if you have need for more frequent information.  We use the same exact gear with gillnet and trapnet specifications as the DNR to get estimates of counts and weights. 

Using these data we can:

• Analyze the fish community structure
• Understand the changes over time
• Determine year-class strengths and age structure of populations
• Analyze fish condition
• Create maps of likely fish habitats
• Recommend stocking and other management.

We can also analyze habitat for high value nurseries based on plant availability, Spawning areas for species based on bottom hardness and depth.