BAY CITY, MI — A new Saginaw Bay reef is ready for tenants.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission says it finished construction of the new Channel Island Reef on Oct. 10 roughly a month after crews began dropping limestone cobble from a local quarry into the water to build the new inner bay reef.

The 570-foot long, 2.5 acre reef built from 20,000 tons of limestone is a half-mile east of Channel Island, a manmade island built in 1978 to hold dredged sediment . Its purpose is to increase spawning habitat for native Lake Huron species such as walleye and whitefish.

“Fishing is vital to the region,” said John Riley, an environmental quality specialist with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). “The constructed reef will help improve the available catch and

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