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"This license will also help charter boat captains, baitstores, restaurants, motels and the many businesses
Governor George V. Voinovich signed legislation on November 26 creating a new one-day fishing license for both tourists and Ohio residents. The new one-day fishing license will cost $7 and be available at license outlets across
Ohio on March 1, 1998.
"The new one-day fishing license will help attract more Ohioans and out-of-state visitors to our rivers, lakes and streams, which are among the finest in the Midwest for fishing," said Voinovich. "This license will also help charter boat captains, baitstores, restaurants, motels and the many businesses that benefit from our great Ohio fishing."
The availability of the new $7 licenses is good news for charter boat captains and tourism directors near Lake Erie who think the licenses will bring more money to them and the state.
"The whole fishing industry will benefit," said Leroy Wenger, a Sandusky charter operator who represents the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association. "So will the hotels, the restaurants and the bait shops."
for more information about fishing in Ohio, visit GLSFC's Fish Ohio!
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The idea is designed to increase the tourism trade along Lake Erie.
During the past year, the number of fishing licenses sold in Ohio fell from 900,000 to 800,000--a $1.5 million difference in license fees, the Ohio Division of Wildlife said.
"We have a lot of people who want to go for four hours," Wenger said. "But they won't pay $60 for a family of four."
Currently, Ohioans can buy only an annual license for $15. The state also offers out-of-state anglers an annual license for $24 and a three-day license for $15.
Lawmakers said they have heard from bait shop owners, restaurant managers and hotel operators, who were worried about losing revenue.
Fishing contributes about $1 billion to the state's economy, according to the wildlife agency.
The state also takes in more than $12.7 million a year from the sale of resident and nonresident fishing licenses. Franklin, Cuyahoga and Ottawa counties lead the state in fishing license sales.
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 "it eats the eggs of other fish before they are large enough to defend against the imported predator." Goby's arrival in West Michigan could mean trouble for an already struggling yellow perch population on Lake Michigan. Gobies compete with perch for food and habitat and usually win, according to research publications. According to experts, the goby is already spreading through the Great Lakes faster than the alewife. Once the goby colonizes an area, the fish quickly takes over the best spawning areas along the shoreline. And because the goby can feed at night, it has the ability to win the competition for food over many other species of fish, according Dave Jude, a research scientist at the University of Michigan . Jude calls the goby the "cyberfish of the '90s" because of its odd looks, voracious appetite and the havoc it can wreak on native fish populations. Gobies were not spotted in Lake Michigan, north of South Haven, until late this summer. "I was surprised to see them here already. It's pretty disappointing," Chuck Pistis, an avid angler and Michigan Sea Grant agent in Grand Haven, said. "Pistis said he and other anglers caught at least 20 gobies while fishing for menominee and whitefish last month off the north pier at Grand Haven. One of the fish Pistis nabbed was a female loaded with eggs. For more info visit "Round Goby Watch"produced by the University of Minnesota Sea Grant Program for the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network . |
The goby can grow up to 12 inches in length and resembles a large tadpole with bulging eyes. It has one distinguishing characteristic: a single pelvic fin not found on native Great Lakes fish.
The rapid spread of the goby through the Great Lakes has alarmed Great Lakes fisheries biologists. State agencies have distributed thousands of fliers to anglers over the past two years warning them to be on the lookout for gobies - and to kill the fish if caught.
The only good thing about the goby is that it eats zebra mussels, which have encrusted the bottom of vast areas of Great Lakes waterways. But Jude has said the negative effects associated with the goby far outweigh its positive role in helping to control zebra mussel populations.
The trouble with the goby, Jude said, " is that it eats the eggs of other fish before they are large enough to defend against the imported predator."
Jude said the magnitude of the goby's effect on the Great Lakes ecosystem will unfold as it continues to colonize larger areas of the lakes.
Pistis urged West Michigan anglers who catch gobies to kill the fish and report the finding to his office by calling 846-8250.
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