Summer at UW–Madison’s Trout Lake Station means science (mostly)

"Well, in some cases, I do literally get paid to fish," says Abel of his work.

Later, the pair of student researchers don about 60 pounds of scuba gear each and try to look not entirely uncool as they heave over the side of Micropterus to perform what amounts to underwater window-washing. Stretched along the boat's hull- if you can find them in the murk - are an array of sensors keeping constant tabs on the amount of dissolved oxygen available to Escanaba Lake's various living things.

"There's always algae growing on the surface of the sensors, and the algae absorbs CO₂ and releases oxygen. That could really mess with our data," says Smith, holding a torpedo-shaped sensor in one hand and a tiny scrap of cloth in the other. "So, we're down there every week with a little piece of towel or sponge, carefully wiping these sensors clean to make sure we're getting good data.

"This is what science looks like, sometimes," he shrugs. "Except we can barely see anything down there."

As petite as the cleaning cloth and sensor window may be, the scientific research happening at Trout Lake Station is no small thing.

Once and future studies

The data collected for this July week in 2024 by Smith and Abel will feed into decades of measurements from Escanaba Lake, where a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources research station has been logging the vital stats on every fish caught for nearly 80 years. The crew of Micropterus will use the data in their walleye study, called "Bright Spots," to describe what makes hardy populations of the fish maintain their strong numbers while other lakes' walleye counts decline as water warms and other conditions stray from the iconic fish's preferences.

"Knowing that we can look back that far and find comparable data taken with the same methods in the same places in the same lakes adds so much to what Jack and I are able to do in our own projects," Smith says. "At the same time, we're out here today contributing to other projects that people haven't even thought of yet."

Catch (and record) and release

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.