Category Archives: Fishing News

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 … Continue reading →

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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.” Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was first passed in 1972 after public outrage over chronic phosphorus-driven pollution problems plaguing the lakes. The agreement helped foster sweeping upgrades for industrial and municipal waste treatment systems on both sides of the border.

The lakes responded quickly. Rivers stopped burning, algae blooms waned and fish populations rebounded.

The agreement was subsequently updated in the late ’70s with a goal to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters” inside the Great Lakes basin.

But while this shared blueprint to maintain and restore the health of the world’s largest freshwater system still has grand ambitions, today it is way more words than action.

The two governments say they want to change that. Continue reading →

Five U.S. states lost a bid to overturn a court’s rejection of their request to close links between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River to halt advancing, invasive Asian carp.
Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania had sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and an Illinois waterways management agency, claiming the voracious fish threatened a $7.09 billion sport fishing and tourism industry. Steps taken to stop the entry into the lakes were ineffectual, they alleged.
U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow in Chicago last year rejected the states’ request, concluding they hadn’t shown the requisite imminent harm. A three-judge appellate panel of the U.S. Circuit Court in Chicago today upheld the lower-court ruling on different grounds. Continue reading →

EPA will spend $6 million to hire unemployed people who can work on Great Lakes cleanup projects.
Congress has appropriated $775 million over the past two years for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a wide-ranging plan to improve the region’s environmental health.

Among the priorities are cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, improving wildlife habitat and protecting watersheds from contaminated runoff. In recent weeks, EPA has been announcing grants for projects around the region from the $300 million allocated for the 2011 fiscal year. The final $6 million from that pot of money will go to the unemployment initiative, said Susan Hedman, EPA’s regional administrator in Chicago.

The newly announced program is unique because it specifically targets jobless workers. The initiative is similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Depression-era program that put the unemployed to work.

EPA will choose projects by the end of September. To qualify, they must provide immediate, direct ecological benefits and be located in areas identified as federal priorities, such as national lakeshores or areas of concern. They also must include a detailed budget and produce measurable results.
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