The Fish Division of the University of Michigan’s Museum of Zoology hosted two workshops dealing with identification of invasive and potentially invasive fish species on April 4-5, 2016 at the Varsity Drive collections facility.

Participants included research staff and field biologists from several state and federal agencies:  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the University of Toledo Lake Erie Center.  Also attending were a Gladwin High School biology teacher and two students.  A total of 26 researchers attended the two sessions.

Participants examined more than 50 species of native and non-native fishes from the UMMZ collections.  Dr. Stephen Hensler (USFWS) and Dr. Kevin Wehrly (MI DNR) assisted Douglas Nelson, Fish Division collection manager, in the instruction. According to the visiting scientists the workshops were informative and very appropriate to their identification efforts.  Hensler is also making use of the UMMZ material to develop keys and a field guide to assist Great Lakes government biologists in early detection of new introductions of non-native fishes.