Lake Michigan Salmon Issue

[jimski2]

http://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/index ... kings.html

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Thanks for posting. What an intelligent, caring, pro-active approach. Michigan certainly realizes that whether you are a proponent of the Pacific Salmon program or not, they make restoring native species possible by controlling the ravenous alewife.

Before anyone gets any ideas here, were are in exactly the opposite situation. Michigan alone has 5 Salmon hatcheries, we are relying on one(all our eggs in one basket), we have surplus Alewives and Smelt, and the emerald shiner population is immeasureable. We have been falling short on our egg eyeing targets, and through the efforts of the many pen project volunteers we manage to get a decent amount to escape the huge population of predators that were not here when the program started. On top of it all, being the smallest lake, angler access to the Salmon population is greater than any other Great Lake--they get cropped on both sides of the fence. Finally, as a barometer(as if snagging baitfish on our lures throughout the season wasn't enough), our 3 yr old matures average 22lbs. Our Lake Ontario, is actually under utilized for Chinook production and native restoration and economic gain could be realized in a greater way if we went back to pre-cut levels.

That should be a fantastic presentation in Benton Harbor MI, and if I didn't have clients that day I would drive out there.

[jimski2]

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/inde ... ery_a.html

More on Lake Michigan situation. School teacher making more waves.