Perch Decline May Mean Green Bay Closure
OUTDOORNEWS.com
Green Bay, WI ~ If the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recommends a complete closure of the yellow perch fishery on the waters of Green Bay, they'll be missing the boat, so says fourth-generation commercial fisherman Mark Maricque of Green Bay.
"As far as I'm concerned they're not addressing the issue, and that's white perch and carp," Maricque said. "If we were allowed to remove white perch through normal fishing practices until we reached our quota (of yellow perch), maybe we could help clean up this mess."
Preliminary studies by the DNR and UW-Sea Grant seem to show that adult white perch predation on young-of-the-year yellow perch may be a key factor in the decline. Maricque said carp root up and destroy aquatic plants used by yellow perch to disperse their spawn. Carp stirrings also keep contaminated sediments suspended, where they can flush farther out into the bay.
White perch and carp aren't the only scapegoats. Many sport anglers believe a booming population of fish-eating cormorants are to blame. Chuck Schommer of Schommer's Resort on Sawyer Harbor, adjacent to Door County's Potawatomi State Park, said he's seen hundreds of cormorants devour spawning perch each spring.
"And the big ones, they kill those, too," Schommer said. "Last year I scooped up some big perch that they grabbed but couldn't swallow."
Others think it's a combination of all of the above, plus predation by strong populations of spotted muskies, northern pike, walleyes, smallmouth bass, trout and burbot. Among the many other possibilities: alewives, zebra mussels, water temperature changes during recent spring spawning seasons, and pollution.
Ron Hedsand, of Sunset Bar & Grill on Riley's Point in Door County, has yet another theory: clear water on the bay in recent years has changed the places people are finding fish, and, at times, made them tougher to catch. But Hedsand said there was some excellent perch fishing for those who knew where to look last year.
"It baffles me that they're thinking of shutting it down," Hedsand said. "With this clear water we have now, we're seeing a lot of perch in every age class when we fish for bass in spring. Last year was no different."
Hedsand thinks closing the sport fishery would be penalizing the paying customer, while cormorants, white perch and other predators continue to feast on yellow perch.
"I get $7 for a boat launch, and a lot of guys stop in to eat and have a drink," Hedsand said. "If they shut it down or even reduce the bag limit to five perch, there's going to be a ripple effect throughout the economy."
Using data from spring and summer fyke net and trawl surveys, a sport creel census and records from commercial fishermen, DNR biologists estimated that the 1988 biomass of yellow perch in the bay was about 10 million pounds. In recent years, the estimates have been come in at less than one million. The sport angler catch has dropped from estimates of more than 3 million fish in both 1990 and 1991 to less than 200,000 in both 1998 and 2000.
Meanwhile, the commercial harvest has fallen from a high of about 475,000 pounds of yellow perch in 1991 to less than 150,000 pounds two of the past three years. And in a 2001 quota season that began last July, commercial netters have taken less than 20,000 pounds so far.
"It's because most aren't fishing," Maricque said. "Guys don't want to stay out until 5 p.m. picking white perch out of the nets for the few yellows. On any given day, it could be 10-1 or 100-1 (ratio of white perch to yellow perch)."
Even though commercial netters say there's a strong market for white perch, the DNR hasn't allowed them to net the fish due to concerns of PCB contamination. When last checked in 1996, the fish were testing out at over 2 parts per million of PCBs. The DNR has proposed a new project to look at PCB levels to see if they've dropped.
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"As far as I'm concerned they're not addressing the issue, and that's white perch and carp," Maricque said. "If we were allowed to remove white perch through normal fishing practices until we reached our quota (of yellow perch), maybe we could help clean up this mess."
Preliminary studies by the DNR and UW-Sea Grant seem to show that adult white perch predation on young-of-the-year yellow perch may be a key factor in the decline. Maricque said carp root up and destroy aquatic plants used by yellow perch to disperse their spawn. Carp stirrings also keep contaminated sediments suspended, where they can flush farther out into the bay.
White perch and carp aren't the only scapegoats. Many sport anglers believe a booming population of fish-eating cormorants are to blame. Chuck Schommer of Schommer's Resort on Sawyer Harbor, adjacent to Door County's Potawatomi State Park, said he's seen hundreds of cormorants devour spawning perch each spring.
"And the big ones, they kill those, too," Schommer said. "Last year I scooped up some big perch that they grabbed but couldn't swallow."
Others think it's a combination of all of the above, plus predation by strong populations of spotted muskies, northern pike, walleyes, smallmouth bass, trout and burbot. Among the many other possibilities: alewives, zebra mussels, water temperature changes during recent spring spawning seasons, and pollution.
Ron Hedsand, of Sunset Bar & Grill on Riley's Point in Door County, has yet another theory: clear water on the bay in recent years has changed the places people are finding fish, and, at times, made them tougher to catch. But Hedsand said there was some excellent perch fishing for those who knew where to look last year.
"It baffles me that they're thinking of shutting it down," Hedsand said. "With this clear water we have now, we're seeing a lot of perch in every age class when we fish for bass in spring. Last year was no different."
Hedsand thinks closing the sport fishery would be penalizing the paying customer, while cormorants, white perch and other predators continue to feast on yellow perch.
"I get $7 for a boat launch, and a lot of guys stop in to eat and have a drink," Hedsand said. "If they shut it down or even reduce the bag limit to five perch, there's going to be a ripple effect throughout the economy."
Using data from spring and summer fyke net and trawl surveys, a sport creel census and records from commercial fishermen, DNR biologists estimated that the 1988 biomass of yellow perch in the bay was about 10 million pounds. In recent years, the estimates have been come in at less than one million. The sport angler catch has dropped from estimates of more than 3 million fish in both 1990 and 1991 to less than 200,000 in both 1998 and 2000.
Meanwhile, the commercial harvest has fallen from a high of about 475,000 pounds of yellow perch in 1991 to less than 150,000 pounds two of the past three years. And in a 2001 quota season that began last July, commercial netters have taken less than 20,000 pounds so far.
"It's because most aren't fishing," Maricque said. "Guys don't want to stay out until 5 p.m. picking white perch out of the nets for the few yellows. On any given day, it could be 10-1 or 100-1 (ratio of white perch to yellow perch)."
Even though commercial netters say there's a strong market for white perch, the DNR hasn't allowed them to net the fish due to concerns of PCB contamination. When last checked in 1996, the fish were testing out at over 2 parts per million of PCBs. The DNR has proposed a new project to look at PCB levels to see if they've dropped.
FULL ARTICLE