2014 Clean Rivers Clean Lake - Evening Program-Lake Michigan Fisheries, Current Challenges, Future Hope

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT....
we make fishing better

The Lake Michigan Fishery:
Current Challenges and Future
Hopes
Bradley Eggold
Fisheries Supervisor
Wisconsin DNR
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT.... we make fishing better
Outline

Lake Michigan Ecosystem
Impacts of Aquatic invasive species
Current status of food producers
Chinook salmon Natural Reproduction
Lake Whitefish
Lake Sturgeon

1/5 OF THE
WORLDS
AVAILABLE
FRESH WATER
RELATIVELY
SMALL
WATERSHED
NATURAL
BARRIER
BALANCED NATIVE FISH POPULATION
TOP PREDATORS:
NEARSHORE
FISH
COMMUNITY
Native
Invertebrates
NATURAL
BARRIER
1830s
1919
1921
1937
1938
1934
1936
1950s
1931
1933
1949
1953
By 1967 up to 85% of the Lake
Michigan fishery biomass was
tied up in alewife flesh
Year
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
L
o
w

H
i
g
h
Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement
Fish biomass
total
phosphorus
round goby
spiny water
flea
zebra mussel
Sea lamprey control;
salmon stocking
quagga mussel
Daphnia
Bosmina
Cyclopoid copepod
Diaptomid copepod
Limnocalanus
Cladocerans Copepods
Crustacean Zooplankton 1998-2011
1
9
9
8
1
9
9
9
2
0
0
0
2
0
0
1
2
0
0
2
2
0
0
3
2
0
0
4
2
0
0
5
2
0
0
6
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
2
0
1
0
2
0
1
1
B
i
o
m
a
s
s

(
m
g
/
m
3
)
20
40
60
Limnocalanus
Calanoids
Cyclopoids
Predatory cladocerans
Daphnia
Non-dahnid cladocerans
Increasing
Decreasing
Daphnia
Bosmina
Cyclopoid copepod
Diaptomid copepod
Limnocalanus
Cladocerans Copepods
But too deep
and too large for
some to eat
1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003 2008 2013
Year
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
280
320
360
400
L
a
k
e
-
w
i
d
e

b
i
o
m
a
s
s

(
k
t
)
Bl oat er
Sl i m y s cul pi n
Deepwat er s cul pi n
Rai nbow s m el t
Round goby
Ni nes pi ne s t i ckl eback
Al ewi f e
Slimy sculpin
0.32 kt
Bloater
1.61 kt
Ninespine stickleback
0.004 kt
Round goby
10.81 kt
Alewife
28.99 kt
Deepwater sculpin
1.32 kt
Rainbow smelt
0.22 kt
2013 prey fish
composition
Prey fish composition
1967
Chinook Salmon
Strawberry Creek
Chinook Natural Reproduction:
Coded Wire Tag vs. Oxytetracycline
OTC
Mark
Lake Whitefish Re-colonization in
Wisconsin Tributaries of Green Bay
Menominee River
In the mid-1800s large runs of
whitefish and herring occurred in
the Menominee River

However, precipitous declines
were measured by the late 1800s
and were attributed to overfishing
and habitat degradation from
sawmills whitefish extirpated

Wells and McLain, 1973
Early Signs of Recovery
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1992 1993 1994 1995
MALES
FEMALES
4
1
32
1
54
4
Age Class Distribution
Recruitment
Green Bay-wide CPE
deep sites

Site closest to mouth of
Menominee River

Whitefish Movement
Green Bay Whitefish Sport Harvest
Photo:Alexanders Sport Fishing
Poor Ice
Lake Michigan / Green Bay Whitefish
Harvest and Quota

Using a Streamside Rearing Facility
on the Milwaukee River for Lake
Sturgeon Rehabilitation
Streamside Rearing Facility
Number of Lake Sturgeon stocked
in the Milwaukee River, 2003 - 2013
Year
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
N
u
m
b
e
r

S
t
o
c
k
e
d
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Fall Fingerlings
Spring Yearlings
Adult transfer
Streamside Rearing Facility
Wild Rose
Fish Hatchery

Milwaukee River
Lake Sturgeon Recoveries
Spring 2013 Spring Electrofishing surveys
April 22, 2013 2 sturgeon, 47.75 and 49.5, RV Finclip
April 25, 2013 2 sturgeon, 41.5 RV Finclip and 55 male with
PIT tag.
Summer 2013 Lake Sturgeon Assessment
Stocking date of 10/02/2010, length at stocking 215mm, weight
41.3 grams. Length at capture 557 mm and weight 950 grams
Caught 5 more sturgeon. One sturgeon was from 2011, two
sturgeons from 2010 and one sturgeon from 2009 stockings out
of the Milwaukee River SRF. The fifth sturgeon did not contain
any PIT but was fin clipped with a RV clip.
A total of 11 lake sturgeon were
caught during this assessment
1 from 2009 MIL SRF stocking
1 recapture
1 with RV finclip MIL SRF
1) Lake Sturgeon raised in the MIL SRF
seem to be surviving and some are staying in
the area - maybe as a juvenile nursery area.
2) We are getting pretty good growth on
these fish, about 5 inches per year
3) Both PIT tags and finclips are holding
through age 4
4) Survival from upstream stocking (River
Mile 20) does not seem to be an issue
QUESTIONS

2014 Clean Rivers Clean Lake - Evening Program-Lake Michigan Fisheries, Current Challenges, Future Hope

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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT....

we make fishing better

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