Raybob
12-24-2000, 03:41 AM
RIVERRUNNER ..Here is a Good Column on the matter .. Thanks to the Columbus Dispatch & Dave Golowenski:
OUTDOOR NOTES
CANADA FACES WALLEYE CUTBACKS
Sunday, December 17, 2000
SPORTS 15E
By Dave Golowenski
For The Dispatch
Ohio's Lake Erie walleye anglers, who have been ordered to bite the bullet in the form of reduced limits beginning next year, soon will have to make room for a fresh set of teeth marks.
As part of the agreement among the governments whose boundaries encompass the lake, fishing interests in Ontario are beginning their jousting over who will bear the brunt of coming harvest limits designed to help restore a sagging walleye population.
"Ontario is about where we were in the process last summer,'' said Gary Isbell, the executive administrator of fish management for the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Actually, there's little question that Canadian commercial fleets will take a big hit. In 1999, for example, they harvested 3.48 million walleye out of the lake and Ontario-licensed sport anglers netted 44,000 -- a fraction more than 1 percent -- of the fish they call pickerel. Thus, any meaningful cuts will have to come from the commercial industry.
Nonetheless, Canadian sport anglers likely will have their tiny portion pared, Isbell said, if only to make cuts more palatable to the commercial outfits. The question is how thin the slice, and that won't be known until representatives from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario agree on how many walleye ought to be taken out of the lake next year.
"They're working on the numbers right now,'' Isbell said.
The numbers that first brought action on Ohio's harvest limits represented a sharp decline in Lake Erie walleye throughout the 1990s. From a peak of perhaps 100 million fish, the stock recently has plunged to perhaps half as many.
Ohio's Lake Erie charter captains long have pointed to Canada as a possible factor in the decline. Gene Majni, president of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association, remains skeptical about whether reductions will have any great effect.
"Ohio sport fishermen haven't been taking out their quotas for a number of years, and the Canadian commercials have been taking theirs,'' Majni said. "That means the total quota hasn't been met, yet we're still seeing the population drop. Something isn't right,'' he said.
Wildlife biologists have indicated that the harvest rate is only one of the factors that can affect a fish population, and most of the variables, including weather during the spawn, worked against Lake Erie walleye for a string of years.
Nevertheless, statistics compiled by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters show that Canada's commercials accounted for 71 percent of all the walleye taken from Lake Erie in 1999, 61 percent in 1998 and 73 percent in 1997.
While not disputing those percentages, Isbell pointed out that the numbers reinforce the fact that commercials annually have no problem claiming their full, agreed-upon quota of walleye while recreational chasers of the finicky fish can usually count on not reaching their allotment.
A decision among the governments won't come until March, but Lake Erie's total catch quota, which was 7.7 million in 2000, is certain to be reduced, Isbell said. Whatever number that turns out to be, Ohio remains entitled to 51 percent of the total.
outdoors@dispatch.com
OUTDOOR NOTES
CANADA FACES WALLEYE CUTBACKS
Sunday, December 17, 2000
SPORTS 15E
By Dave Golowenski
For The Dispatch
Ohio's Lake Erie walleye anglers, who have been ordered to bite the bullet in the form of reduced limits beginning next year, soon will have to make room for a fresh set of teeth marks.
As part of the agreement among the governments whose boundaries encompass the lake, fishing interests in Ontario are beginning their jousting over who will bear the brunt of coming harvest limits designed to help restore a sagging walleye population.
"Ontario is about where we were in the process last summer,'' said Gary Isbell, the executive administrator of fish management for the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Actually, there's little question that Canadian commercial fleets will take a big hit. In 1999, for example, they harvested 3.48 million walleye out of the lake and Ontario-licensed sport anglers netted 44,000 -- a fraction more than 1 percent -- of the fish they call pickerel. Thus, any meaningful cuts will have to come from the commercial industry.
Nonetheless, Canadian sport anglers likely will have their tiny portion pared, Isbell said, if only to make cuts more palatable to the commercial outfits. The question is how thin the slice, and that won't be known until representatives from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario agree on how many walleye ought to be taken out of the lake next year.
"They're working on the numbers right now,'' Isbell said.
The numbers that first brought action on Ohio's harvest limits represented a sharp decline in Lake Erie walleye throughout the 1990s. From a peak of perhaps 100 million fish, the stock recently has plunged to perhaps half as many.
Ohio's Lake Erie charter captains long have pointed to Canada as a possible factor in the decline. Gene Majni, president of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association, remains skeptical about whether reductions will have any great effect.
"Ohio sport fishermen haven't been taking out their quotas for a number of years, and the Canadian commercials have been taking theirs,'' Majni said. "That means the total quota hasn't been met, yet we're still seeing the population drop. Something isn't right,'' he said.
Wildlife biologists have indicated that the harvest rate is only one of the factors that can affect a fish population, and most of the variables, including weather during the spawn, worked against Lake Erie walleye for a string of years.
Nevertheless, statistics compiled by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters show that Canada's commercials accounted for 71 percent of all the walleye taken from Lake Erie in 1999, 61 percent in 1998 and 73 percent in 1997.
While not disputing those percentages, Isbell pointed out that the numbers reinforce the fact that commercials annually have no problem claiming their full, agreed-upon quota of walleye while recreational chasers of the finicky fish can usually count on not reaching their allotment.
A decision among the governments won't come until March, but Lake Erie's total catch quota, which was 7.7 million in 2000, is certain to be reduced, Isbell said. Whatever number that turns out to be, Ohio remains entitled to 51 percent of the total.
outdoors@dispatch.com