May 21, 1999
TO: People interested in Great Lakes fisheries
FROM: Bill Horns, Great Lakes Fisheries Specialist
This is an update on some of the issues facing us on the Great Lakes. If you have questions or comments about the topics discussed here or any other issues related to Great Lakes fisheries, contact me by phone (608.266.8782), FAX (608.266.2244), or e-mail (william.horns@wisconsin.gov).
Progress in development of new commercial fishing regulations – public meetings in sight. The Commercial Fishing Task Force, made up of commercial fishers, sport fishers, legislators, and others, has been making good progress in developing proposed rule changes. The Task Force was formed at the direction of Secretary George Meyer in the wake of some well-publicized arrests for the illegal over harvest of commercial fish species, and asked to address the problem of adequately enforcing commercial harvest limits. After reviewing all sides of the problem and considering many options, including electronic reporting, the use of lock-boxes, limitations on the number of landing ports, and the use of float plans (that is, prior notification of daily fishing plans), the Task Force hopes to have a package of proposals to present for review at public meetings later this year. The meetings will be an opportunity for all interested individuals to have a voice in the process. The dates, times, and locations of these meetings have not yet been set.
Public informational meeting regarding experimental stocking of additional strains of rainbow trout in Lake Michigan. The Department has taken the initial steps toward obtaining and experimentally stocking in Lake Michigan two strains of rainbow trout that are more accessible to nearshore anglers than the steelhead strains now in use. We are looking at the Arlee strain (available from brood stock held at the Ennis Federal Hatchery in Montana) and the London strain (available from the Cikana State Fish Hatchery in Indiana). The new strains would be stocked in addition to the three strains of steelhead. Before following through with this, we want to hear from the interested sport-fishing public regarding the implications it might have for the hatchery production and stocking of other strains or other species. Please plan to attend the following meeting to discuss this proposal and other issues raised in the revised Steelhead/Rainbow Fisheries Management Plan for Lake Michigan:
Date and time: June 9 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Place: Wisconsin Training Room, Lakeshore Technical College, Cleveland, WI.
If you cannot attend the meeting, but would like additional information, please let me know.
New fisheries boat. The Department has acquired a new assessment boat for use on Lake Michigan and Green Bay. This 45’ aluminum boat was built in 1992 and has been used as a lobster boat in the north Atlantic off of Prince Edward Island. It will be used primarily for yellow perch assessment studies, but it will also be available for other projects. Once it is fully outfitted for trawling and gill-netting, you will see it in use in the Milwaukee area in early summer and in Green Bay in late summer, with mid-summer stops along the way for salmon and trout projects. For those of you who can get on the internet and are interested in seeing what the boat looks like, send me an e-mail and I will send you photographs electronically.
Revised smelt harvest limit from Lake Michigan. After reviewing a request by the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources that the Department review its proposal to cut the annual smelt harvest limit from 2,358,000 pounds to 713,340 pounds, the Department will ask the Natural Resources Board to amend the rule proposal. The amended rule would set the annual total allowable commercial harvest at 1,000,000 pounds. This will be considered by the Natural Resources Board when it meets in June. This winter we received contradicting pictures of the lakewide trend in smelt abundance. One one hand, the U.S. Geological Survey reported extremely low smelt catches in its fall 1998 lakewide survey, but, on the other hand, commercial trawlers reported much higher harvests than during the previous year. We hope to have a clearer idea about trends in smelt abundance after the USGS completes its fall 1999 lakewide forage survey, and we expect to base future adjustments in the harvest limit on confirmed lakewide trends.
Sea lamprey control. Sea lamprey control is a linchpin of sport and commercial fisheries on the Great Lakes. This program is carried out by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission through its control agents, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Elements of the program. The sea lamprey control program still relies primarily on chemical treatments of streams with the lampricide known as TFM, which selectively kills sea lamprey larvae. Because sea lamprey larvae spend several years in a stream before transforming into the parasitic phase and migrating to the open lake, chemical treatments are only necessary once every several years in affected streams. Only a small fraction of streams are treated, because most are not used by sea lamprey for spawning. Lake Superior has 1,566 tributaries, of which only 136 have been shown to produce sea lamprey. Lake Michigan has 511 tributaries, of which only 121 have been shown to be used for spawning by sea lamprey. The great majority of those are in Michigan. Only four Wisconsin tributaries to Lake Michigan (Oconto, Peshtigo, Hibbards, and East Twin) have ever been treated for lamprey. Surveys over the years have shown that, with those exceptions, our streams are not good sea lamprey producers. Chemical treatments are guided by a systematic program in which tributaries are surveyed for the abundance and distribution of sea lamprey larvae. Physical barriers are also part of the sea lamprey control program, and the release of sterile males to interfere with spawning by fertile males has also been used selectively. Because sea lamprey have an acute sense of smell, researchers are exploring the feasibility of using chemical pheromones to lure them into traps. St. Marys River. Because of its size and rapid flow, the St. Marys River, linking Lake Superior and Lake Huron, has never been effectively treated for sea lamprey, even though it is major spawning area. As a consequence, the abundance of lamprey in northern Lake Huron and northern Lake Michigan has remained high. Now, for the first time, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission has mounted a focused effort to reduce sea lamprey abundance in the St. Mary’s. In 1999 an integrated control effort in the St. Marys will be implemented, involving the application of lampricide, trapping, and the release of sterile males. Local outbreaks. Occasionally sport or commercial fishers notice unusually high numbers lamprey attached to fish, and this sometimes points to the need to treat a particular stream. In Lake Superior, lamprey abundance had increased in the Apostle Islands area, but a treatment in 1998 of the Bad River should result in noticeable drop in lamprey wounding rates starting this year. A couple of years ago, commercial and sport fishers around Door County noticed increasing incidence of lamprey marks on fish they caught. Sampling of the Oconto River indicated that it might be significant contributor to the problem, and it was treated chemically in 1997. More recently, some anglers have reported unusually large numbers of sea lamprey attached to sport fish caught in the Milwaukee to Kenosha area. This has not yet been explained, although the best available objective data indicate that attachment rates in that vicinity (approximately six lamprey per 1000 lake trout) are not extremely high when compared with most other areas of the lake. Although lamprey have never been found to spawn in the Milwaukee River, it will be surveyed this summer, as will Oak and Pike Creeks.