DNR changes Lake Michigan fish stocking plan

This report provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced a new plan this week to relieve predation pressure on alewives in Lake Michigan. The 2017-18 plan will include reducing lake trout stocking as well as Chinook salmon stocking to take the pressure off the baitfish, rather than just reducing Chinook as originally planned. A change was made to the original plan after members of the Lake Michigan Committee spoke with anglers and constituents in neighboring states to gather more opinions about the fishery's needs. "We received a considerable amount of comments from our advisory committee, sporting groups, anglers and the general public on how to address the predation issue," Jay Wesley, DNR Lake Michigan Basin coordinator said. "The one common goal we all shared through the review process was to maintain our diverse fishery in Lake Michigan, with Chinook salmon as an important component of our multibillion-dollar sport fishery." This will be the fourth significant stocking adjustment to predator levels since 1999. The five-memberLake Michigan Committee is made up from all state management agencies that border Lake Michigan and the Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority. Recommendations from the committee represent the consensus of its members. While most of the stocking adjustments will occur in other states, Michigan will stock 300,000 Chinook salmon in 2017 (down 46 percent from 2016) and will discontinue federally stocked lake trout in Grand Haven, Holland and New Buffalo in 2018. Lake Michigan's Chinook fishery is supported by 60 percent wild fish that mostly are produced in Michigan's rivers and streams. Michigan also will continue to stock 1.57 million coho salmon, 580,000 steelhead and 550,000 brown trout to maintain a diverse fishery. In the near future, Michigan will eliminate its own stocking of lake trout in Lake Michigan (50,000) and replace these fish with steelhead. "We appreciate the robust engagement Michigan citizens brought to this issue," DNR Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter said. "They learned more about the difficulty managing Lake Michigan and we learned more about their fishing preferences. "In the end we will still meet our biological goal to reduce predation pressure and continue to provide a world-class fishery." Wesley said data about predator and prey numbers, salmon weight and health will continue to be considered annually to determine when it will be safe to increase stocking in the future.