TOPIC:

Great Lakes Salmon Initiative

Sat 1/19 was the MSU Sea Grant Ludington Workshop. Huge thanks to Ludington Charter Assoc., Sea Grant, MDNR for a very good mix of topics and presentation of info. Because of the shutdown, much of the program was not presented because the fed employees are not working and the data is not available.

An important part of our management tools is the need for continuation of stomach content analysis. Brian Roth presented Huron-Michigan diet study and later Jory Jonas presented Predator-Prey Ratio; how much food is available and what they eat. Between the 2 presentations it demonstrated food preferences and flexibility of individual species along with targeted prey differences between the 2 lakes. Basically what is available and what predators will eat, what they prefer which demonstrated clearly why so many Chinook migrate from L. Huron to L. Michigan. Stomach analysis shows what predators are eating, from what areas of the lakes at different times of the year and even if the stomachs are empty or just have a backbone in them they would like them turned in.

Sea Lamprey control update--we are in a great position currently on adult lamprey in L. Michigan but that can change. First Nations in Ontario waters of Huron are refusing the Ministry to Lampricide some major tribs that produce millions of Lamprey and many of these will migrate to L. Michigan. Proposal to eliminate the 6th St Dam in Grand Rapids may potentially open almost 2000 miles of prime Lamprey spawning grounds and make it extremely expensive if not impossible to control Lamprey in this system.

St. of Michigan Charter fishing Reporting Program: 2018 Catch and Effort, by Donna Wesander. Overall state wide Charters were up, L. Mi increased by 1000 additional trips and overall throughout the year catch rates were good, due to the fantastic spring coho and Chinook fishing and charters targeting Lake Trout when other species were not available. Donna made comments that the charter fleet has learned to adjust to less salmon and when not available target lake trout to catch fish and put something in the coolers for clients. Jay Wesley presented the recreational creel harvest and hours of effort later in the day. Clearly demonstrating the differences between charter efforts and recreational efforts. We are meeting our targeted goals of over a million rec angler effort hours on L. Michigan the last 2yrs, up from 800k in 2016. Jay accredited this to the possibility of large Kings. What was apparent is there is only a slight uptick in the Lake trout Harvest in rec catches despite an increase of 300k hours of effort.

Cormorant Control in 2019: Biology and Bureaucracy at Work. I don't even know where to begin. Angler concern over the predation of bait fish and targeted species like perch, walleye, smallmouth etc. is far greater than the concern by researchers. This was a comment made by Jory Jonas and she explained the differences and I respect her explanation. What was presented and really made me upset (I am only speaking for myself, President of the GLSI) why cormorants were taken off control status and returned to protection status? A group called PEER sued in federal court and the USFWS had to defend the position to maintain control efforts. The USFWS failed miserably by failing to show how cormorants effect fish populations and habitat. Thus leaving the states to deal with the situations that have followed. My concern is the USFWS is supposed to be in a supporting partnership with the states of the Great Lakes by providing research, Lamprey control etc. Last year the GLSI clearly showed that the USFWS agenda to plant, rehabilitate and restore Cisco was to eradicate and eliminate alewives and rainbow smelt. The USFWS is responsible for planting the Lake Trout in Michigan and Huron and any reductions in trout production is reduction in dollars needed to fund the USFWS. If the complete failure to defend Cormorant control falls on their shoulders, how much trust can we put in them to deliver quantitative data to our Great Lakes Managers to manage our fisheries for our interests?

This is a synopsis of the workshop and it is very difficult to put all discussions in full. I will try to get the graphs and data out to you when possible as we have done in the past.

During the lunch break the LCBA had a great raffle. I would like to thank all the manufacturers, restaurants, Hotels etc., that donated and the tremendous effort by the LCBA by getting these donations. I will try to get a list of donators or check out the Ludington Charter web site to see if they post a list. As anglers we need to support these businesses.

I drove from Indiana to this event and glad I did!