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Anglers also have an important role to play in
this aspect of the project," said Mike Conlin, chief of the
Division of Fisheries for the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources. "Those catching tagged perch should return each tag to the address printed on it and report the date and location
of the catch, along with the length of the perch and the name and address of the angler."
Although not fully funded at the present time, a significant portion of the Lake Michigan yellow perch study is underway this
spring, with the four-state partnership seeking additional funding to conduct the full scope of the three-year project.
Additionally, the state of Illinois is seeking an independent scientist to evaluate the potential influence depth and season have on
the distribution of yellow perch. The two-year study will look at yellow perch in areas of the lake not covered by the
Department's annual yellow perch assessment, at greater depths and different seasons. Since 1976, IDNR has conducted
annual perch surveys at two locations at depths of up to 60 feet, which encompass the principal perch spawning area.
Proposals to conduct the study are due back to the Department by the end of May.
As part of the four-state perch protection effort, Illinois has banned commercial and charter fishing for yellow perch in Lake
Michigan. Sport anglers are limited to taking no more than 15 perch per day and may only keep those perch from 8 to 10
inches in length. In addition, sport fishing for perch will be closed during the month of June, as has been the case since 1995.
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"Researchers will investigate perch
life stages from the egg through
the larval and post-larval stages in
the waters of all four states. "
Reprinted Courtesy ILDNR
Natural resources officials from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin are conducting a three-year
Lake Michigan yellow perch research project aimed at learning more about the alarming decline in numbers of this valuable fish
species.
"We have implemented stringent fishing regulations to protect the remaining yellow perch population. Now our team approach
to managing the Lake Michigan fishery is looking for ways this resource can rebound for the long term," Illinois Department of
Natural Resources Director Brent Manning said.
The Lake Michigan Management Agencies have launched a comprehensive, lakewide project focusing on factors affecting the
survival of young perch -- and a tagging initiative to better understand perch movements in Lake Michigan.
Researchers will investigate perch life stages from the egg through the larval and post-larval stages in the waters of all four
states. This aspect of the study will try to determine whether factors including predators, competition and starvation are to
blame for the lack of survival of perch in their first year of life.
Approximately 40,000 perch will be tagged lakewide in each of the next two years to better understand perch movements, to
determine whether adult perch return to the same spawning areas each year, and to generate estimates of the number of perch
in spawning populations in selected areas throughout Lake Michigan.
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Observation of spawning
salmon in this watershed
tributary, previously unsuitable
for successive larval recruitment,
warrants further study.
A survey conducted by U-W Milwaukee Center for Great Lakes Studies reports
chinook salmon have been observed spawning in the East Chicago Sanitary
District Earthen Channel, East Chicago, Indiana. Lake-wide genetic
variation among stocked salmonids is believed to be relatively high in
this species, as was observed in the survey of spawning adults taken from
the Earthen Channel.
The survey was conducted in collaboration with research scientists from
Rutgers University New Jersey, Midwestern University Chicago, and
biologists from the East Chicago Sanitary District and the Hammond, IN
Aquatic Resource Center. As an addendum to visual observation of salmon
spawning and to collections in 1995 of parred juveniles within this
tributary, data were obtained as a preliminary assessment of populational
genetic structure. This was the first observation and collection of
parred and smolt chinook salmon from a single natural spawn in the
southern basin of Lake Michigan.
Beginning in 1989, schools of spawning salmon in increasing numbers were
observed in a tributary flowing into the Grand Calumet River in East
Chicago, IN. The tributary's head-water source is the effluent from the East Chicago Sanitary District's wastewater
treatment plant. The wastewater plant had been upgraded in 1987, at which
time the use of ultraviolet light replaced chlorination as the method of
effluent disinfection.
In the spring of 1995, juvenile (paired and smolt) salmonids were observed
in the wastewater treatment plant's disinfection chambers, which are
located upstream of the tributary into which their effluent flows. In the
fall of 1995, the juveniles were identified as chinook salmon.
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Research biologist, Dr. Lidia G. Nonn, of U-W Center for Great Lakes
Studies, who headed up the project, stated their purpose was "to determine
the success of the chinook spawns at this unique site, and to begin a
data-base for the determination of reproduction.
A salmon population estimated at 45 juveniles inhabited the chamber in
1994 and moved into the tributary in the fall of 1995. Night SCUBA dives
were attempted to collect the juveniles for a mark-recapture program.
Twelve juveniles were collected, five of which were sacrificed for further
tests. The remainder were tagged and released.
The results showed the five juveniles were either all heterozygous or all
homozygous. Only one location exhibited variability in the adult salmonid
population sampled. No rare allozyme markers were found that may be
useful in future paternity analysis or that may link juveniles to the
population of spawning adults.
Nonn acknowledges the genetic data are limited in the sense that only
small numbers of individuals were available. However, she emphasizes
three points following the initial observation of juvenile and adult
chinook salmon at this site. Observation of spawning salmon in this
watershed tributary, previously unsuitable for successive larval
recruitment, warrants further study. Secondly, the juvenile population
sampled may have arisen from only a single mating pair, although many
adult individuals have been observed returning to the East Chicago
Sanitary District site. Thirdly, numerous distinct populations exist in
Lake Michigan from various stocking efforts, and the study population may
mix with other salmon that may spawn at the East Chicago Sanitary District
site.
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USFWS Press Releases
