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

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT……………………..….. we make fishing better

The Lake Michigan Fishery:

Current Challenges and Future

Hopes

Bradley Eggold

Fisheries Supervisor

Wisconsin DNR


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

WORLD’S

AVAILABLE

FRESH WATER

RELATIVELY

SMALL

WATERSHED


NATURAL

BARRIER


BALANCED NATIVE FISH POPULATION

TOP PREDATORS:


NEARSHORE

FISH

COMMUNITY


Native

Invertebrates


NATURAL

BARRIER


1830’s

1919

1921

1937

1938

1934

1936


1950’s


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

Lo

w

Hig

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

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Bio

ma

ss (

mg

/m3)

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

Lak

e-w

ide

biom

ass

(kt) Bl oat er

Sl i m y scul pi n

Deepwat er s cul pi n

Rai nbow s m el t

Round goby

Ni nespi ne s t i ckl eback

Al ewi f e

Slimy sculpin0.32 kt

Bloater1.61 kt

Ninespine stickleback0.004 kt

Round goby10.81 kt

Alewife28.99 kt

Deepwater sculpin1.32 kt

Rainbow smelt0.22 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:Alexander’s 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

Num

be

r S

tocke

d

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Fall Fingerlings

Spring Yearlings

Adult transfer

Streamside Rearing FacilityWild 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...

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