Carol Thompson
Lansing State Journal
LANSING — Nicole Watson boarded the plane in Fairbanks, Alaska with delicate and peculiar cargo, a foam box marked "live animals" just small enough to fit under the seat on the long flight to Detroit.
Inside the box were thousands of gooey globular fish eggs, the future of a species that vanished from Michigan streams a century ago and has since evaded attempts to restore it in its native home.
Watson, a Michigan State University doctoral student, is part of a team of scientists working on a new effort to reintroduce the fish, Arctic grayling, to Michigan's inland streams. Biologists from tribes, universities and the state government are collaborating on a years-long project to bring back the lost icon.