SPRING AND SUMMER TEMPERATURES OF STREAMS TRIBUTARY TO THE 

 SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE SUPERIOR, 1950-60 



INTRODUCTION 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, contract- 

 ing agent for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, 

 has operated sea lamprey control devices in streams 

 tributary to the south shore of Lake Superior since 

 1950. These devices were intended primarily to 

 block the upstream migration of spawning sea lam - 

 prey, Petromyzon marinus (Apple gate. Smith, and 

 Nielsen, 1952.1/ Certain biological and limnolog- 

 ical conditions have been measured in connection 

 with the operation of these barriers since the first 

 mechanical weir was installed in Pendills Creek, 

 Chippewa County, Michigan, in 1950. 



The purpose of this report is to assemble the 

 water temperature data accumulated from 1950 to 

 1960, and to make them available for reference. 

 These records can be useful to aU fishery workers 

 interested in the streams of the area. The relations 

 of temperature to the time and extent of fish migra- 

 tions and to changes of fish populations are always 

 important in fishery management and research. No 

 comments or recommendations are included as this 

 report contains only temperature data. 



Thermal records from the streams of Lake Supe- 

 rior were fragmentary in the early years of the study, 

 but were more extensive for the summer months after 

 1954. Records were maintained on representative 

 streams of all types and sizes from the Waiska River 

 in Chippewa County, Michigan, west to the Nemadji 

 River, Douglas County, Wisconsin. Most of these 

 streams supported runs of spawning sea lampreys. 



Forty -eight streams on which records were kept 

 for 2 or more years have been included in this re - 

 port. The tables of temperature records for these 

 streams are in geographical sequence from east to 

 west along the south shore of Lake Superior. Tem- 



1/ Applegate, Vernon C. , Bernard R. Smith, and 

 Willis L. Nielsen. 1952. Use of electricity in the 

 control of sea lampreys. U.S. Department of the 

 Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Special Scien- 

 tific Report --Fisheries No. 92, 52 p. 



peratures were taken for 1 year on the 16 additional 

 streams listed below: 2/ 



Ankodosh Creek, Chippewa County, Michigan 

 Baker Creek, Luce County.Michigan 

 Dead Sucker River, Luce County, Michigan 

 Fish Creek, Otienta Township, Bayfield County, 



Wisconsin 

 Graveraet River, Houghton County, Michigan 

 Iron River, Bayfield County, Wisconsin 

 Lily and Boston Creek, Houghton County, Michigan 

 Little Huron River, Marquette County, Michigan 

 Lowney Creek, Alger County, Michigan 

 Pilgrim River, Houghton County, Michigan 

 Reefer Creek, Bayfield County, Wisconsin 

 Roxbury Creek, Chippewa County, Michigan 

 Sand River, Marquette County, Michigan 

 Schlotz Creek, Houghton County, Michigan 

 Slate River, Baraga County, Michigan 

 Tobacco River, Keweenaw County, Michigan 



The author is most grateful to the members of the 

 sea lamprey control unit of the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 

 for gathering the large amount of data needed for this 

 report. The guidance and assistance of the Laboratory 

 Director, James W. Moffett, in preparation of the re- 

 port is especially acknowledged. 



METHODS AND EQUIPMENT 



The following three types of instruments were 

 used: recording thermographs; maximum -minimum 

 thermometers; and hand or pocket thermometers. The 

 thermographs recorded temperatures continuously for 

 7 days on a chart. These instruments were serviced 

 and the charts changed weekly. The daily maximum 

 and minimum readings were taken directly from the 

 chart. Thermographs were adjusted ioc accuracy peri- 

 odically with an electrical -resistance thermometer. 



Maximum -minimum thermometers were read and 

 reset daily. 



2/ The records are not included in this report, but are 

 available from the Field Station at Marquette, Mich- 

 igan, as are daily records for all streams. 



