By Capt. Terry R. Walsh

The Michigan Charter Boat Association celebrated 40 Years of Excellence at its Annual Conference held the third weekend of October at the Doubletree Hotel in Holland, MI.  Well over 100 captains and their wives, first mates, dignitaries, congress representatives, state fisheries biologists, the United States Coast Guard and special presenters were all part of the gala event.  Several long-time MCBA members said, ìIt was the best attended, most educational, and informative conference we have ever attended.

After an appreciated welcome to a packed conference room, President Terry Walsh turned the Saturday morning meeting over to Dr. Dan O’Keefe, Southwest District Extension Educator, who would act as the dayís moderator.

The morning’s first speaker was Jay Wesley, Acting Lake Michigan Basin Coordinator from the Department of Natural Resources.Lake Michigan had a great 2010 year class of alewife with a high survival rate that produced the most exciting Chinook salmon fishery we’ve seen in many years, Wesley said.  The fish were much larger than in previous years.  Twenty-pound salmon were pretty common last summer, and I think we can expect similar results in 2012. Wesley added that the angler catch per excursion was nearly six salmon.

The Coho salmon and brown trout fisheries were a pleasant surprise, according to Wesley, who said, They showed up in good numbers in angler catches.  And again, like the Chinook, they were much larger than in previous years.  One Coho tipped the certified scales at 29-pounds!

The urge to procreate happens like clockwork and when the water reaches the right temperature, the Root River turns into a salmon singles’ bar each fall.

But to have a healthy population of coho and Chinook in Lake Michigan, the fish need a helping hand to hook up. That’s why a group of Department of Natural Resources employees dressed in chest waders, rubber boots and gloves worked quickly this week to scoop up coho salmon at the Root River Steelhead Facility, siphon eggs and sperm and mix the two together in plastic buckets destined for a fish hatchery.

The coho will be raised until they’re yearling size and then dumped in Lake Michigan destined for fish hooks wielded by Wisconsin anglers in 2013.

These are booming times for Lake Michigan’s salmon.

“It was a good year for coho. It was probably the longest and most sustained coho we’ve had in decades,” said Brad Eggold, DNR fisheries supervisor for the southern half of Lake Michigan.

Chinook salmon are also robust. Among the reasons for a healthy population is an abundance of forage fish like alewives that salmon snacked on last year and this year, growing big and fat.

Salmon are not native to Lake Michigan but were introduced half a century ago as a predator to alewives when the alewife population exploded; they’re now a popular fish among anglers.

On Interstate 80/90 in Ohio there is a small, unassuming sign that indicates you have crossed the line that divides the Great Lakes basin and the Mississippi River basin.
Keeping these two watersheds separate is important for the health of both water systems, but that dividing line is not stopping water and fish from moving between the basins.
The Great Lakes Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) indicates that a water exchange between basins (hydrological risk) could occur through wetlands, ancient portage routes, rivers and streams during high water events or floods. This could allow non-native organisms, known as Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) to displace native species and degrade native habitats.

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An eight ton research buoy is out gathering wind data in Lake Michigan. The one-point-three million-dollar buoy launched in Muskegon today (Friday) will collect detailed wind data over the next ten years.

Chris Hart is an Offshore Wind Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy. He says there’s only three of these high tech bouys [...]

17-State Anti-Invasive Species Coalition Tells Congressional Leaders to Pass Legislation Shaving Three Years Off the Current Plan
LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced that the newly formed national coalition of seventeen attorneys general fighting the spread of Asian carp and other aquatic invasive species though Chicago waterways have sent a letter to the leaders of three Congressional committees calling for them to move federal legislation (H.R. 892, S. 471) that would force a quicker resolution to the on-going study currently being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In particular, the coalition called for legislation to:

• Slash three years off the current Army Corps of Engineers’ study, from the end of 2015 to the end of 2012;
• Direct the President (or his designee) to oversee the study and ensure it is completed on time;
• Require the Army Corps to use information found in independent studies of the problem rather than duplicating such efforts, thereby speeding up the process;
• Force the Army Corps to use the Congressionally-mandated standard of “preventing” the spread of invasive species instead of their unilateral decision to instead look for ways to merely “reduce the risk” of such a spread.

“These states understand that the job-killing invasive species flowing freely though the wide-open doorway in Chicago must be stopped now,” said Schuette. “We are turning up the heat on federal officials dragging their feet at our expense. It is too bad we need legislation to do this, but it is time for the Army Corps of Engineers to get to work.”

PORT CLINTON — Since Wednesday, two boat crews have been scouring three local waterways in search of a parasitic creature that kills fish throughout the Great Lakes.

Recently, researchers have been finding larger populations of sea lampreys, an invasive species, in Lake Erie. The biological science technicians working on Portage River and Muddy and Toussaint creeks were dispatched by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of a program to determine where species is spawning.

The number of cormorant nests in Michigan has been decreasing since population reduction actions were implemented in 2004, the Department of Natural Resources announced today.

Cormorants, which were increasing in numbers throughout the 1980s and 1990s, have been blamed for declining sport fisheries in a number of areas. The breeding population in Michigan stabilized in the late 1990s and early 2000s at around 30,000 nests. Since 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Division has been oiling eggs at nesting sites and removing adults from the population to meet goals set by the DNR.

Additional management activities have also been performed by Tribal natural resource agencies to address concerns related to cormorant impacts to commercial and sport fisheries, as well as alleviating potential conflicts with other species of nesting birds and reduce damage to native plants.

Comprehensive statewide counts from 2007 and 2009 document a 38 percent decrease in breeding cormorants in Michigan, a drop from 29,509 nests in 2007 to 18,200 nests in 2009. The scheduled 2011 breeding cormorant count is underway, and a final count will be available in the fall.

Michigan Sea Grant College Program, a cooperative effort of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, is a promoter and educator of all things Great Lakes, including the native whitefish. The Sea Grant Program recently released a whitefish cookbook, “Wild Caught and Close to Home: Selecting and Preparing Great Lakes Whitefish.” It’s a compilation of 55 recipes from restaurant chefs, fishermen and culinary educators from Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.
The book is great for those just learning to cook fish as well as experienced cooks. Sometimes people get in a rut with favorite fish recipes. This book can help get people out of the rut by introducing a variety of fish cooking methods, including frying, sauteing, stir-frying, steaming, poaching, broiling, grilling, roasting, baking, smoking and pickling.

Six attorneys general in the Great Lakes region called for a multi-state coalition Wednesday that would push the federal government to protect the lakes from invasive species such as Asian carp by cutting off their artificial link to the Mississippi River basin.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the officials invited colleagues in 27 other states to join a lobbying campaign to separate the two watersheds, contending they have as much to lose as the Great Lakes do from migration of aquatic plants and animals that can do billions in economic damage and starve out native species.

“We have Asian carp coming into Lake Michigan and zebra mussels moving out of the Great Lakes and into the heart of our country, both of which are like poison to the ecology of our waters,” Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said. “This is not just a Great Lakes issue. By working together, we hope to put pressure on the federal government to act before it’s too late.”

Also signing the appeal were attorneys general from Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It was being sent to their counterparts across the Mississippi basin as well as Western states such as Nevada, where Lake Mead and other waterways have been infested by zebra mussels believed to have been transported from the Great Lakes by unwitting recreational boaters.