The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is proposing to reduce the number of whitefish that commercial fishers can take from Lake Michigan as the population has seen a dramatic decline.
About 20 years ago, Lake Michigan boasted more than 60 million whitefish that were 3 years old and older, according to most recent models. The population has since dropped 75 percent or more, said Scott Hansen, senior fisheries biologist for the DNR.
As the population has fallen, Hansen said the commercial harvest of lake whitefish has dropped to record lows. The harvest has declined from a peak of about 2 million pounds in 1999 to around 150,000 pounds last year in Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan.
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Now the agency is proposing to reduce the commercial harvest of whitefish in Lake Michigan by almost 340,000 pounds next year. It’s accepting public input through Nov. 7.
“It’s ultimately about keeping the fisheries sustainable and keeping the population sustainable based on what is happening in Lake Michigan right now,” Hansen said.
Regulators and commercial fishers agree that the decline of whitefish in Lake Michigan is largely due to invasive mussels that are disrupting the food chain. Todd Stuth and his wife Carin own and operate Baileys Harbor Fish Company in the Door County peninsula. Stuth said zebra and quagga mussels have filtered out many of the organisms that young whitefish feed on to survive.
“It’s not a fishing impact,” Stuth said. “It’s basically a complete ecologically based decline in whitefish stocks.”
Even so, Hansen said that doesn’t mean commercial fishing doesn’t have an impact. He noted it’s been about 20 years since a good year class, or successful spawning year, has produced a high number of surviving whitefish in the lake.
Currently, the commercial whitefish quota for Lake Michigan is set around 874,000 pounds, and the DNR is proposing to limit that to just under 535,000 pounds next year.
In Green Bay, whitefish have bucked trends in the lake. Commercial and sport fishers split a quota of nearly 2.3 million pounds of whitefish, and the quota would remain the same at 1.1 million pounds for commercial fishers in Green Bay.
Stuth, who chairs the Lake Michigan Commercial Fishing Board, said he understands the reasoning behind the proposal to limit the commercial harvest in Lake Michigan.
“If they eliminate or reduce the quota any further, you’re basically going to restrict the ability of a fisherman to go out there,” Stuth said.
Nearly three dozen commercial fishers hold 48 licenses to harvest fish from Lake Michigan, according to the DNR.
Stuth said limiting the harvest also reduces data collection on their catch that helps determine whitefish stocks. In the meantime, Stuth said he along with other commercial fishers have shifted their businesses to include processing and selling more fish to local restaurants. He added that their business is also harvesting the vast majority of their whitefish quota from Green Bay.
In recent decades, the population of whitefish in Green Bay saw a large increase that hadn’t been seen for more than a century due in part to spawning in the Menominee, Oconto, Peshtigo and Fox rivers. Even so, Hansen said models show the number of mature whitefish in Green Bay has declined by more than half from a peak of 35 million fish around 2011.
“They don’t produce high populations all the time. It’s not in their best interest to eat themselves out of house and home,” Hansen said. “We could be just simply seeing really, really high production coming down to Earth.”
Whitefish is the highest value fishery in Lake Michigan with an estimated value of roughly $2.8 million last year, according to the DNR.
If commercial fishers accept the DNR’s recommendation, Stuth said he doesn’t believe it should be reduced any further. But he said they may be left with no choice.
“At some point you have to realize that you have to do some things that are not always favorable in terms of your business, but it is favorable in terms of the resource,” Stuth said. “We’re all resource-minded. Sustainability is the key to any long-lasting commercial fishery, and we want to make sure that we are 100 percent sustainable.”
If approved, the reduced quota may be in effect for up to three years. The DNR will make its recommendation to the Natural Resources Board in December.
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