Fish net installation preparations underway

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

PERE MARQUETTE TOWNSHIP — Two vintage tugboats now docked along the Buttersville Peninsula are preparing to assist with the annual installation of the fish barrier net at Consumers Energy’s Ludington Pumped Storage Plant.

The John Henry and Julie Dee, both owned by The King Company of Holland, are currently positioned on Pere Marquette Lake as staging activity begins for the seasonal project.

The John Henry, a 65-foot tug built in 1954 by Missouri Valley Steel in Leavenworth, Kansas, originally served the U.S. Army as SR-2013 until 1980. The Julie Dee, built in 1937 in Beaumont, Texas, measures approximately 68 feet in length and has previously operated under the names Jerry O’Day and Cindy B.

The vessels are part of The King Company’s marine construction fleet and are being used in the installation of the large fish barrier net that stretches across the Ludington plant’s intake channel on Lake Michigan. The King Company has been involved in marine construction work at the site, including net installation. Underwater Construction Company has also been involved in the project, providing commercial diving and underwater support services.

The net, which spans roughly 2.5 to 3 miles and reaches depths of about 50 feet, is installed each spring and removed in the fall to prevent damage from ice. It is designed to reduce the number of fish drawn into the plant’s powerful intake system, which circulates massive volumes of water between Lake Michigan and an elevated reservoir.

The Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world, operates by pumping water uphill to a reservoir during periods of low electricity demand and releasing it through turbines to generate power when demand is high.

Installation of the fish barrier net stems from a 1994 settlement involving the State of Michigan, under then-Attorney General Frank Kelley, along with federal agencies and tribal governments. The agreement required Consumers Energy to implement measures to reduce fish mortality caused by the plant’s operations, which had been estimated in earlier studies to reach into the millions annually.

_____________________________

Please Support Local News and Sports Coverage

Receive daily MCP and OCP news briefings along with email news alerts for $10 a month. Your contribution will help us to continue to provide you with free local news. 

The payment can be paid monthly through PayPal: Click this link.

To sign up for an annual subscription, email editor@mediagroup31.com. In the subject line write: Subscription. Please supply your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number (indicate cell phone). We will not share your information with any outside sources.

For more than one email address in a household, the cost is $15 per month per email address.

We can send you an invoice for a yearly payment of $120, which you can conveniently pay online or by check. If you are interested in this method, please email editor@mediagroup31.com and we can sign you up. You can also mail a yearly check for $120 to Media Group 31, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454 (please include your email address).

Payment must be made in advance prior to subscription activation.

We appreciate all our readers regardless of whether they choose to continue to access our service for free or with a monthly financial support.

_____

This story and original photography are copyrighted © 2026, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.

As the services of Media Group 31, LLC are news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.