Lake Michigan Fisheries News
November, 2003TO: 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). We also maintain a Lake Michigan web page:http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/lakemich/index.htm,
Green Bay yellow perch hearings scheduled. A proposed rule to continue protecting yellow perch in Green Bay will go to public hearings in Peshtigo and Green Bay on Thursday, December 11. Under a sunset clause in current law, the annual commercial harvest limit will revert to 200,000 pounds and the sport fishing daily bag limit will return to 25 on June 30, 2004. The proposed rule would extend that sunset date two years, to June 30, 2006. Although our survey of young yellow perch hatched in 2003 indicates that this was an outstanding year class, we cannot be certain that those fish will survive to maturity, and we think the proposed continuation of current rules is needed to protect the remaining mature adult yellow perch. The hearings will be at 1:30 in the Council Chambers of the Peshtigo Municipal Building located at 331 French St., Peshtigo, and at 5:30 at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, 1660 E. Shore Drive, Green Bay. Written comments mailed to me by December 21 will be placed on the formal hearing record.
Summer trap netting on Lake Michigan. In May of this year the Natural Resources Board approved limited commercial trap netting during summer in designated areas near Manitowoc/Two Rivers and south of Sheboygan. That rule will take effect in 2004. Each commercial license holder will be limited to three nets. During summer the pots may not be placed in water shallower than 75 feet, so no part of any trap net, other than lines to the floats and flags, will be near enough to the surface to entangle any part of a recreational boat other than fishing lines and down-riggers. The Manitowoc/Two Rivers summer trap netting area will be bounded on the north by 44º8’55" north latitude and on the south by 44º5’33". The Sheboygan area will be bounded on the north by 43º40’50" on the south by 43º34’39".
Trap net marking requirements. We are now advancing a rule to improve and standardize commercial trap net marking requirements on Lake Michigan. Under our proposal, each trap net will be conspicuously marked with flags and buoys in a way that will allow boaters to know the location and orientation of the net (see diagram). A single hearing on this rule will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, December 12, in room 027 of the DNR office building located at 101 South Webster Street in Madison. Let me know if you would like a copy of the rule. Written comments mailed to me by December 21 will be placed in the hearing record.
Brook trout restoration in Lake Superior tributaries. Under some circumstances, brook trout in Lake Superior will leave tributaries to spend most of their life in the lake before returning to spawn. These fish, referred to as "coasters", are typically larger than brook trout that spend their entire lives in the streams. Coasters were abundant in our Lake Superior waters a century ago, but stream habitat alterations and fishing have virtually eliminated them from Wisconsin waters. We believe that increased surface runoff and decreased ground water re-charge, resulting from deforestation and other alterations of the landscape, have fundamentally changed the ability of our streams to support brook trout, including coasters. In partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Trout Unlimited, Wisconsin is moving ahead with a restoration program that will explore several restoration approaches.
Asian carp status report. When someone mentions Asian carp they are probably referring to one of four species – grass, bighead, silver, and black. The grass carp or white amur has in the past been planted in small ponds to control vegetation. A few recently showed up in survey nets in the Milwaukee River, probably escapees of past pond-stocking and (we hope) not representing a self-sustaining population. The big head and silver carp eat plankton. Both are abundant in the Mississippi River and its tributaries south of Wisconsin. The silver carp is the one that leaps out of the water when startled, and has been known to injure boaters. Silver Carp have made their way into the Illinois River and are approaching the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, where an electrical barrier is maintained to prevent them from getting into Lake Michigan. One big head carp was captured in Lake Pepin, just south of St. Paul on the Mississippi River. It would not be surprising if others are already in the Wisconsin River and other Wisconsin streams that flow into the Mississippi, but our ongoing monitoring of the Wisconsin River has not detected any. The black carp has gill rakers that are fused and hardened for use in crushing the shells of mollusks and crustaceans. So far the black carp is limited to southern states.
Coping with low water. Low water is hurting us in two ways – by limiting hatchery fish rearing capacity and by preventing or slowing spawning runs to our weirs. Low ground water levels have reduced available water at the Kettle Moraine Springs and Nevin State Fish Hatcheries, resulting in cuts in production of yearling steelhead and coho for stocking next spring. Our field and hatchery biologists are coping with low flow to the weirs by collecting mature steelhead near the mouth of the Root River using electrofishing gear and by arranging to obtain coho eggs from New York and Michigan. Recent rain brought some fish up to the weirs, but probably too few and too late. Strawberry Creek, our primary chinook salmon spawning facility is able to function fine during low-water years because we can pump water up to the spawning facility from the Sturgeon Bay ship canal using an ancient pump and diesel engine that broke down three times this year.
Sturgeon restoration delayed. Plans to restore lake sturgeon in the Manitowoc and Milwaukee Rivers have been sidelined, at least temporarily. Earlier this year we stocked large numbers of sturgeon fry in those rivers, but our plans to stock fall fingerlings spawned from Winnebago system parents came under question because of concerns that lake sturgeon stocked in Wisconsin streams might adversely affect remnant lake sturgeon populations in three tributaries in the State of Michigan. It has been shown that Michigan’s remnant populations are genetically different from sturgeon of the Lake Winnebago system. Some biologists argued that our fish, upon reaching sexual maturity, might stray into those streams and destroy the unique genetic identities of those populations. I cannot briefly and fairly summarize the scientific and ethical arguments for and against that position. However, the concern was sufficiently persuasive to cause the Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana Departments of Natural Resources and the Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority to ask Wisconsin to postpone plans to stock fall fingerlings. We hope to resolve the concerns and move ahead with a fall-fingerling stocking program in the near future.
Cormorants. The Department can attempt
to control cormorants now, subject to USFWS oversight. The
USFWS has adopted new rules allowing State fish and wildlife agencies,
Federally-recognized tribes (on tribal lands), and USDA Wildlife Services to
kill cormorants, without a federal permit, when the birds are harming public
resources. The new federal rules will require any agency or tribe planning to
initiate a cormorant control program to a) explain why control is needed and b)
report on the effectiveness of the actions. A well-designed study to gather the
needed information would be very expensive. Even though cormorants are known to
eat a lot of fish, we do not know that they hurt yellow perch or other
highly-valued species. For additional information about the new federal rules,
visit
Green Bay smelt trawling closure to be reconsidered. In March of this year the Natural Resources Board adopted a rule that would close commercial trawling for smelt from Green Bay until July 1, 2008. In May, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee asked the Department to modify the rule to allow an annual harvest of 100,000 pounds. In October the Natural Resources Board supported a Department recommendation to sustain the closure, but with an expiration date of July 1, 2007. The revised rule proposal was discussed by the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources on November 12, at which time the Department agreed to consider further modifications to the rule. Stay tuned.