TOPIC:

Great Lakes Salmon Initiative
27 mins ·
On Wednesday May 24th the GLSI met with the Little River Band Tribe in Manistee. The importance of this meeting was to understand tribal interests, how different or in line are the tribes with sport fishing interests. Due to comments made in the past by state and federal agencies concerning the 1836 Treaty, Consent Decree, Treaty Waters and what agencies can do or not do, due to these issues we felt that we needed to develop an open dialogue with a/the tribes. We approached this meeting with out any misconceptions but to be honest were hesitant on how we would be received. The openness and professionalism in the way we were received was very much appreciated. Both sides of the discussion agreed in the beginning that cutting out 3rd party misinformation was paramount.
The discussions involved Lake Trout, Alewives, Silver Fish, Tribal Interests, Fisheries Management among others.
Misconceptions of 3rd party statements: 5 Tribes are involved and a Broad Stroke statement is unfair "you can't touch Lake Trout due to consent decree." Alewives are an invasive species and the tribes want alewives eradicated was also expressed as an unfair statement. Archie Martell the Senior Biologist expressed that the lake can never be returned to a native/natural state due to invasive species and changes in the ecosystem.
The LRB was not speaking for all the tribes, that being said the LRB seems to be in line with sport fishing interests as a whole more that we thought entering into this meeting. A more balanced predator/prey ratio needs happen in Lake Michigan. Northern Lake Michigan Lake Trout harvest needs to be increased for both commercial and sport fishing. Lake Trout are consuming to many prey species and undermining commercial interests in Whitefish by turning to this species as food. The constant that they hear from the USFWS is that increased harvest flies in the face of the Lake Trout Rehab Plan!!! Both parties agreed that the biomass and bioenergetics modeling of Lake Trout can and needs to be improved. Especially for trout in the 11-20lb classes. Sea Grant published a paper recently saying Lake Trout eat 13lbs of food a year and Chinook eat 3x that. This modeling effects all decisions of all species and planting numbers based on Chinook equivalencies. This modeling needs to be revisited, most stakeholders don't believe the accuracy of the modeling.
The tribes appear to be frustrated by the same agency that the GLSI and the MDNR are up against---USFWS. Why do they have so much say in how our fisheries are managed? We brought up the fact that it sounds like a jobs bill to us. The LRB said that it sure does---allows them to keep jobs, build more and improve hatcheries. How do we fight this? Why doesn't the MDNR decide to make decisions in the face of the USFWS. I may be out of line asking this question again but would like better answers than we are getting. The DNR would have the backing of tribes, sport groups etc.
The Native Fisheries Stance:
*They are adaptable
*They are going to side with what benefits them the most.
*They have many business interests besides fishing
*They recognize the economic impact of a silver fishery to the state of Michigan and reap the benefits of those dollars also.
We left the meeting having further interest in maintaining an open dialogue. There are and will be in the future items that we can work together on and it was expressed that working together will have a greater impact to achieving the targeted aims. Hearing from the "Horses Mouth" will reduce any misconceptions and benefit both the sport fishermen and the tribes.

Thanks for posting this! Interesting to hear how the tribes view things with the state of the fishery.