Dismal perch numbers urge stocking study
You've probably heard it said that if you don't like the weather in Milwaukee, wait 15 minutes and it will change.
If only the principle applied to yellow perch.
I and many others haven't liked the status of perch in Lake Michigan for more than 15 years.
And waiting hasn't proved helpful. In fact, as sand has slipped through the hourglass, the condition of the "fish of the people" has only gotten worse.
Case in point: 2020 data from the
graded mesh assessment, considered the best gauge of the lake's perch population.
The work includes placement of gill nets in waters east of Milwaukee for several nights. The nets have various sizes of mesh designed to capture a wide range of age classes.
The GMA is done in winter, when perch traditionally are well-mixed in terms of gender, size and age.
Sadly, the trend graph of results looks like the EKG of a deceased person.
For the 2020 work, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources caught just three perch over several nights in December. The total effort included 19,000 feet of gill net.
The result, expressed as catch-perunit-effort, is so small it doesn't show up on the graph.
Last winter three fish were also caught; the year before that just one perch, a 13-year-old female, was netted.
If this was a picture of your financial holdings, you'd be broke.
I'm not alone in my futile hopes for a recovery of the perch, arguably the most valuable fish to ever swim in the big pond.
From sport anglers to owners of restaurants and bait shops to commercial fishermen, tens of thousands of people along the Wisconsin Lake Michigan coast have anxiously watched for a perch recovery.
As Lent approaches and demand spikes for fish, the lack of perch becomes
With Lake Michigan yellow perch numbers at low levels, the time seems right to try a stocking study.
especially poignant for many.
What Wisconsin restaurant or tavern wouldn't love to serve plates of fresh Lake Michigan perch?
The supply line is dry.
The problem is not one of data. The DNR has done yeoman's work monitoring the perch in an array of assessments.
The trouble was first spotted in the early 1990s when scientists observed a severe drop in recruitment, or survival of young fish.
Most fisheries experts point to the arrival of dressenid mussels, invasive species brought into the Great Lakes by international shipping, as the main culprits. The quagga mussel now carpets much of the lake bottom, filtering plankton from the water 24/7.
The result is a crippling lack of nutrition for larval fish, including the perch.
After the hatchlings absorb their yolk sac, they drift and search for food. With so little available, the vast majority are doomed, according to the prevailing hypothesis.
Also to its credit, the DNR acted fairly quickly to try to help perch, including by banning commercial fishing starting in 1996, slashing the sport bag limit to 5 fish a day and instituting a fishing closure during the spawning season.
None of which, however, has produced the desired resurgence.
So now in 2020 we are left with a dismal perch outlook.
What could promote a comeback? The last 25 years have shown passive, protective measures designed to allow the perch to naturally build their numbers haven't worked.
If natural resource managers and politicians are serious about helping perch, it's time for action and investment.
In a cruel irony, the Wisconsin DNR and other state agencies spend millions of dollars a year to stock non-native salmon and trout species in Lake Michigan.
But not a penny on stocking perch. Nor even a cent on a perch stocking study.
The topics of fish stocking and the Lake Michigan perch crisis briefly intersected Wednesday at the Natural Resources Board meeting in Madison.
After an aquaculture presentation by Brian Shepherd, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher who works out of the School of Freshwater Sciences at UW-Milwaukee, board member Bill Bruins asked if there was some application of agency's work that could help the lake's perch.
"I would absolutely think so," Shepherd said. "The question is, if the DNR wants to stock, or do more, you've got to call the right people."
Shepherd then said something many in Milwaukee have known for decades: The scientists at the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences, principally Fred Binkowski, know how to raise perch indoors.
The fish are not extinct; native brood stock are finning offshore.
According to several fisheries biologists and researchers familiar with the Lake Michigan ecosystem, if perch were raised in a hatchery to 3 or 4 inches in length and released in nearshore waters when round goby larvae were available, the native predator could utilize the abundance of invasive prey. If they got over the "hump," the perch might grow and live long enough to spawn in the lake.
For now this is simply informed speculation.
The last 25 years have shown it's likely going to take a substantial commitment in personnel and funding to stimulate a perch recovery.
Do we value perch enough to try a stocking study? Or are we content to watch the continued demise of a former pillar of Wisconsin sport, culture and commerce?
I believe we owe the native greenand-gold fish our best shot.
Gromme print sale: A sale of Owen Gromme wildlife art prints will be held this weekend to benefit conservation in Wisconsin. The 900 prints were donated by BMO Harris to Ducks Unlimited. Proceeds from the sale of pieces will benefit conservation efforts in the state with a goal of $500,000.
The prints will be displayed and sold Friday through Sunday at Penny Mustard Furnishings, 16220 W. Bluemound Road, Brookfield.