Lake Michigan Yellow Perch
Remain Scarce
By John Karl
MADISON, Wis. (12/18/98) — Lake Michigan’s yellow perch are still few and far between, but prospects for recovery are not entirely bleak, according to University of Wisconsin Sea Grant researchers and the multistate Yellow Perch Task Group.
"Populations throughout the lake are still way down, but it’s not hopeless," said Fred Binkowski, a task group member and Sea Grant-funded biologist at UW-Milwaukee. "The status meter has moved from a reading of ‘grave’ to ‘serious.’"
The slight signs of improvement were detected in the task group’s sampling and tagging data from last summer.
"Yellow perch are reproducing throughout the lake, but the numbers are highly variable," said Bill Horns, Great Lakes Fisheries Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "During last spring’s spawning season, reproduction was good in Indiana waters and moderate in Green Bay, but it continued to be disappointing in other Wisconsin and Illinois waters."
"The signs in Indiana and Green Bay are encouraging, but they don’t signal a restored yellow perch fishery anytime soon," Horns said. "For that, we need to see several years in a row of strong reproduction."
The Yellow Perch Task Group is a unique, multistate coalition formed by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission in response to the decade-old decline of yellow perch in Lake Michigan. It comprises fish managers and researchers from state agencies and universities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Sea Grant programs in each of those states fund a significant portion of the group’s work.
Efforts to solve the riddle of Lake Michigan’s yellow perch decline are described in a free fact sheet from the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute. Write to UW Sea Grant Institute, Goodnight Hall, 1975 Willow Drive, Madison, WI, 53706-1103, call (608) 263-3259, or email linda@seagrant.wisc.edu.
For More Information:
See also:
Major
Perch Research Effort Launched (03/28/98)
Perch
Research: Phase One Complete (10/6/97)
UW
Sea Grant Researchers Tackle Perch Problem (8/20/97)
Where
Have All the Yellow Perch Gone? (4/16/97)
Created in 1966, Sea Grant is a national network of 29 university-based programs of research, education and outreach dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of the United States' coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources. The National Sea Grant Network is a partnership of coastal states, private industry and the National Sea Grant College Program , National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce . The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program is administered by the Sea Grant Institute on the UW-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin.
posted 12/18/98 by Karl
last revised 01 June 2000 by
Karl
all contents copyright 1998 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/news_releases/perch_research.htm
