A Perspective on American Eel Management and …...A Perspective on American Eel Management and...
22
A Perspective on American Eel Management and Conservation from the Great Lakes John M. Dettmers 1 , Alastair Mathers 2 , and Steve LaPan 3 1 Great Lakes Fishery Commission 2 Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry 3 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Transcript of A Perspective on American Eel Management and …...A Perspective on American Eel Management and...
A Perspective on American Eel Management and Conservation from the
Great Lakes
John M. Dettmers1, Alastair Mathers2, and Steve LaPan3
1 Great Lakes Fishery Commission 2Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
3New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Outline for Today’s Thoughts
• Importance of American Eels in the Great Lakes
• Great Lakes fishery management
• Existing efforts re eel management
• The need for coordinated management
Presenter
Presentation Notes
IMPORTANT: Notes pages will accompany each slide. Please use the notes page to complement the slide – to help a “relatively uninformed reader” grasp what is being conveyed on the slide. Unsupported slides can be somewhat unintelligible because of the limited space to convey complex points. Bullets are acceptable as long as the “clear communication” objective is met. Efforts should be made to restrict the note to one slide page. Commissioners should be able to read only the notes and understand the point of each slide. Also, the notes for each slide will serve as the foundation for the GLFC’s annual report. Annual reports will be in a new format that will present the highlights of each directorate Be sensitive to the possibility that your notes will be publically available, though directors will always be able to edit text before it is included in the annual report.
Historical Abundance • “…an almost unlimited supply …eels”
Du Creux 1664
• “…the eel constitutes a manna exceeding all belief…”
Le Jeune 1652-1653
• “ …one or two men could catch five or six thousand in a single night…”
Le Jeune 1652-1653
American Eel Fisheries • Important source of food and medicine to First Nations peoples
and an important component of the commercial fishery. • New York commercial fisheries for eels in Lake Ontario closed
in 1982. • Ontario commercial fisheries for eels throughout the province
closed in 2004.
-
50
100
150
200
250
1884
1889
1894
1899
1904
1909
1914
1919
1924
1929
1934
1939
1944
1949
1954
1959
1964
1969
1974
1979
1984
1989
1994
1999
2004
2005
2008
Harv
est (
1000
's o
f kg)
(After King 1866) Ontario commercial fishery for eels in Lake Ontario - closed in 2004
Presenter
Presentation Notes
American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) is the only member of the genus Anguilla found in North America. Once thought to be more than 30% of the nearshore biomass of Lake Ontario fishes Ontario commercial fishery for eels in Lake Ontario was closed in 2004
Fishery Independent Data
Moses – Saunders Dam
NYPA eel ladder in operation since 2006
OPG eel ladder in operation since 1974 (upgrade in 2009)
Water flow
Moses-Saunders Eel ladder results as of Oct 1, 2015
Outline for Today’s Thoughts
• Importance of American Eels in the Great Lakes
• Great Lakes fishery management
• Existing efforts re eel management
• The need for coordinated management
Presenter
Presentation Notes
IMPORTANT: Notes pages will accompany each slide. Please use the notes page to complement the slide – to help a “relatively uninformed reader” grasp what is being conveyed on the slide. Unsupported slides can be somewhat unintelligible because of the limited space to convey complex points. Bullets are acceptable as long as the “clear communication” objective is met. Efforts should be made to restrict the note to one slide page. Commissioners should be able to read only the notes and understand the point of each slide. Also, the notes for each slide will serve as the foundation for the GLFC’s annual report. Annual reports will be in a new format that will present the highlights of each directorate Be sensitive to the possibility that your notes will be publically available, though directors will always be able to edit text before it is included in the annual report.
10
1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
Un-successful attempts at cooperation
Failed Treaty
1883-1942: Improvised conferences, false starts, and attempts at agreement
Presenter
Presentation Notes
1883-1942: Improvised conferences, false starts, and attempts at agreement During this era, agencies were highly parochial. They did try to work together. At least 27 international and interstate conferences were held At the AFS meeting of 1897, for instance, states agreed on the need for uniform regulations, but nothing came of it. In 1929, Michigan and Ontario met to establish uniform regulations but neither government passed those regulations. The federal governments signed—but rejected--one international treaty: too much power to the feds. Governments virtually ignored and often infringed upon tribal prerogative Fishery managers were unable or unwilling to persuade their legislatures to implement the recommendations of the many conferences and meetings. This parochialism did little to conserve the fishery or to build trust among fishers. Hard-won regulations in each jurisdiction were rarely reciprocated
Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Established 1955 by Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries U.S. & Canada Parties 3 General Duties Coordinate Fisheries
Research Coordinate Fisheries
Management Conduct Sea Lamprey
Control
A Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries
• Many jurisdictions on the lakes • Provincial, state, tribal, federal, binational • Need to work together
• Plan signed in 1981; revised in 1997 • Complex issues
• Need to understand the resource • Need to translate science into management • Need to balance competing interests
• Participants work together
• Under the Joint Strategic Plan • Through “lake committee” meetings
• Great Lakes Fishery Commission facilitates • Highly successful agreement!
Strategies for Great Lakes Fishery Management
• Consensus • Accountability • Information Sharing • Ecosystem-based Management
Outline for Today’s Thoughts
• Importance of American Eels in the Great Lakes
• Great Lakes fishery management
• Existing efforts re eel management
• The need for coordinated management
Presenter
Presentation Notes
IMPORTANT: Notes pages will accompany each slide. Please use the notes page to complement the slide – to help a “relatively uninformed reader” grasp what is being conveyed on the slide. Unsupported slides can be somewhat unintelligible because of the limited space to convey complex points. Bullets are acceptable as long as the “clear communication” objective is met. Efforts should be made to restrict the note to one slide page. Commissioners should be able to read only the notes and understand the point of each slide. Also, the notes for each slide will serve as the foundation for the GLFC’s annual report. Annual reports will be in a new format that will present the highlights of each directorate Be sensitive to the possibility that your notes will be publically available, though directors will always be able to edit text before it is included in the annual report.
Conservation Stocking – Background and Objectives
• Over 4 million eels stocked into Lake Ontario/ Upper St. Lawrence River between 2006-10
• Objectives: 1. Assess relative abundance,
biomass, growth, sex ratio and determine current distribution
2. Determine the possibility of small stocked silver eels successfully migrating to spawn
Conservation Stocking - Results
• Stocked eels survived, dispersed, & grew rapidly
• Some issues: 1. Stocking resulted in ♂ 2. Anguillicoloides crassus
appeared in the lake 3. Stocking ‘phenotype’
Year
2009 2010 2011 2012
Perc
ent M
ale
0
10
20
30
40
50
6021
19
32
21
Year
2010 2011 2012 2013
Prev
alen
ce (%
)
0
2
4
6
8
10
Eel Passage Research Center Funding:
• OPG, HQ, and NYPA are Tier 1 funders
• $230,000 per year for five years.
• EDF (France) considering joining
• Duke Power is Tier 2 funder
• $75,000 per year for five years.
Current projects:
1. Measurement of water currents and flows above Iroquois Dam and Beauharnois Dam
2. Testing guidance techniques
• Using St. Lawrence River eels in flume at Alden Labs
• Guidance techniques include sound, electricity, and EMF
3. White paper on use of light as a guidance technique
Outline for Today’s Thoughts
• Importance of American Eels in the Great Lakes
• Great Lakes fishery management
• Existing efforts re eel management
• The need for coordinated management
Presenter
Presentation Notes
IMPORTANT: Notes pages will accompany each slide. Please use the notes page to complement the slide – to help a “relatively uninformed reader” grasp what is being conveyed on the slide. Unsupported slides can be somewhat unintelligible because of the limited space to convey complex points. Bullets are acceptable as long as the “clear communication” objective is met. Efforts should be made to restrict the note to one slide page. Commissioners should be able to read only the notes and understand the point of each slide. Also, the notes for each slide will serve as the foundation for the GLFC’s annual report. Annual reports will be in a new format that will present the highlights of each directorate Be sensitive to the possibility that your notes will be publically available, though directors will always be able to edit text before it is included in the annual report.
Coordination in the Great Lakes Region
• Upper St. Lawrence River/Great Lakes region cannot directly control immigration into the system
• Conservation stocking is not a viable solution
• USLR/GL region is working to reduce escapement mortality in its area of influence
• Efforts to coordinate are good within the region • Common sense of the problem (e.g., jurisdictions, industry,
stakeholders) • Commitment to improve population status
• Regional efforts may have minimal impact on the population
Coordination Across North America
• Requires Canadian and U.S. federal governments seeing need to coordinate
• Likely to not occur until some crisis arises…or • Substantial agreement among regional groups that a problem exists • Uncertainty about listing status does not create urgency
• At what point is action needed? • Limited recruitment to extremities of the range • Climate uncertainties • Extensive harvest of early life stages • Importance of the precautionary approach
• Great Lakes Fishery Commission could assist if called on • Commissioners will discuss at their December meeting • Would want to work in partnership with Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission
