July 1 , 2002

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Lake Erie quotas boost perch, maintain walleyes
 

   Annual catch quotas for Lake Erie have been increased for 2002 for yellow perch but will remain the same for walleye, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission has announced.  The quotas represent what biologists from lakewide agencies consider the total allowable catch that can be shared while conserving fish stocks.

 

   The walleye catch is set at 3.4 million fish, the same as 2001. Last year the lake states and Ontario, through the GLFC's Lake Erie Committee, agreed to hold the line on walleye catches for at least three years. That was done to give walleye stocks a chance to recover from several years of poor-to-fair reproduction. The 2001 walleye catch lakewide, including sport and Canadian commercial fishing, was 2.9 million fish.

 

   Each state and Ontario are allowed shares of the catch, based on surface area within each jurisdiction. Ohio, with 51% of the lake, is allowed 1.7 million walleye, having harvested 1.2 million last year. Ontario's share, 43%, comes to 1.4 million walleye, mostly taken commercially. The rest of the catch is shared among Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.

   Walleye sport-angling regulations for Ohio waters remain the same as in 2001 for Lake Erie and tributaries at four  fish each day per angler in March and April, and six each day the rest of the year. "Last year was great and we expect it to be equally good this year," said Gary Isbell about the fishing prospects. Isbell is administrator of fish management and research for the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

   The lakewide quota for yellow perch has been boosted to 9.3 million pounds, from 7.1 million pounds in 2001.  "We've been monitoring the yellow perch situation closely, and we believe perch now are showing signs of good recovery," Isbell said.

 

   Perch stocks were depressed for much of the 1990s because of poor year-classes, which led to much more conservative quotas.  Ohio sport anglers will be allowed roughly 2.5 million perch, about 500,000 more than caught in 2001.

   Ontario will be allotted 4.8 million pounds of perch, and the other states will share the rest. Perch shares are set on a different formula from walleye, based on surface area and past performance.  The Ohio sport limit for yellow perch remains 30 each day, and commercial netting rules remain in effect.

Anglers call for protection for spawning walleyes, by D’Arcy Egan

   Criticism of fishing for Lake Erie walleyes during the spawning season will not prod the Ohio Division of Wildlife into examining its fishing seasons, or lack of them, but sportsmen certainly have agreed walleyes need more protection.

   The surprising catches of trophy-size walleyes during a national tournament on Western Lake Erie last month - including 346 fish that were 10 pounds or heavier - prompted a column on the sportsmanship of catching walleyes while they are spawning. Many of the big fish plopped on the scales were still laden with eggs.

   The Ohio Division of Wildlife isn't about to consider a fishing season, although it had trimmed the Lake Erie daily bag limit from six to four fish during March and April, when most walleyes spawn. ODOW Chief Mike Budzik said the fisheries biologists feel a season just isn't necessary. Anglers who don't have a boat should get a chance to catch walleyes when they are heading up the rivers to spawn.

   Almost a hundred sportsmen responded to the column, with most sending e-mails. Every one supported a closed season while walleyes were spawning.

   In the 1970s and 1980s, few charter boats were in business in March and April, wrote Gary Borsos. Wading anglers targeted the walleyes in the rivers, impacting only 10 percent of the population. "Now the entire fishery is under significant impact as more and more people fish the main lake [in March and April]," he wrote.

   Denny Yanik was critical of the Professional Walleye Trail for making money on catches of spawning walleyes. "We have turned good, honest fishermen into high-paid professional businessmen," Yanik said. "Like we did to baseball, basketball and football."

   Eugene Manista wrote that he and his friends don't fish during the spawning season and can't support walleye tournaments on Lake Erie in the spring. "Most of the [pro walleye anglers] are from states where the walleye season is still closed, [such as] Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan."  

   Bob Derr agreed, saying, "Fishermen from more enlightened states arrive here to deplete this resource because they cannot fish in their home states."

   The weights were far lower this week at the PWT event on the Missouri River at Chamberlain, S.D. South Dakota

has a spring limit of six walleyes. While two can be longer than 18 inches, the rest must conform to a 15- to 18-inch slot limit.

  

   As a result, winner Tom Backer of Fargo, N.D., weighed 18 walleyes that totaled 42.37 pounds. On Lake Erie last

month, there were dozens of catches heavier than that for a one-day limit of five fish.

   Most believed the ODOW allows walleye fishing during the spawning season to generate license sales. "I cannot believe that the money raised through license sales offsets the damage done," wrote Ron Campbell.

   A few sportsmen questioned the ODOW's accuracy in counting Lake Erie walleyes. While lots of big walleyes were caught during the recent PWT tournament, many of the pro anglers failed to catch a tournament limit of five walleyes each day despite the best week of spring fishing weather in many years. A few of those pro anglers were Lake Erie experts who live along the shoreline.

   "If some of the best walleye fishermen in America can't come up with five walleyes in a day, then we have to wonder where the walleyes are," said one caller. "Plucking big spawners off of the reefs is a crime."

   Jim Schuerger of Sweet Impressions offered to print petitions for sportsmen's clubs and fishing groups that want to campaign for a closed season. Fishermen wanted to know how to make the ODOW take notice of their desire for a closed season on walleyes. Many also wanted added protection for largemouth and smallmouth bass during the spawning seasons.

   Sportsmen, fishing clubs and conservation groups must team up if they want to change the rules. Anglers should contact their local state legislators, as well as Budzik of the ODOW, Director Sam Speck of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Gov. Bob Taft.

   "You remember the golden days of summer when there were rafts of boats fishing huge schools of walleye?" wrote Borsos. "People who did not fish frequently could go out and land walleyes.

   "The [ODOW] sold many more licenses then and more people were at least taking a kid fishing. Sure, the walleye techniques have changed due to clear water, but the fish are just not there. What harm can come to a closed spawning season for five years to determine if this huge population will return?"

(D’arcy Egan is Outdoor Editor, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Att’y General Denies S. Fox Land Swap

Clouded land title needs clarity, she says

By Keith Schneider, Great Lakes Bulletin News Service

   In a striking decision that affects Michigan’s public lands policy and her own gubernatorial candidacy, Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm has refused to authorize a controversial trade of public for private land on South Fox Island. Ms. Granholm, who is leading in the Michigan Democratic gubernatorial race, said that the land swap could not go forward until questions about who really owns the 219 acres of private land involved in the trade are settled.

   Granholm’s opinion came in a letter on April 9 to K.L. Cool, the director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Last December, Mr. Cool approved trading 218 acres of public land on South Fox Island for 219 acres of private land owned by David V. Johnson, a prominent developer. The Attorney General’s letter, which came in

response to a formal request for a legal opinion filed late last year by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the Michigan Land Use Institute, was made public today.

   The attorney general’s opinion is the third time in 13 months that elected leaders rejected the proposed land trade. On March 13, 2001 the Leelanau Township Board vetoed a proposal by the Department of Natural Resources and Mr. Johnson to build a road through a magnificent freshwater sand dune protected under state law. That decision prompted the state DNR to withdraw its plan to trade more than 600 acres of public land for a nearly equal number of acres of Mr. Johnson’s land on South Fox Island.

   In November 2001 President Bush signed a measure approved by Congress that required United States lawmakers to approve any land exchanged on South Fox Island that involved federal jurisdiction.

Boaters face new rules to cross border

Fingerprinting one of new measures to toughen security (AP)

   Boaters who once needed only a mail-in permit to travel freely over water between the United States and Canada will now be required to submit to fingerprinting and other security restrictions.

   As security measures are heightened along the Great Lakes, one of the biggest changes is a new requirement to obtain a Canadian Border Boat Landing Permit, or Form I-68, said Kimberly Weissman, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman.

   The permit lets boaters from Canada and the United States bypass U.S. Customs and Immigration stations. Until now, boaters simply paid a US$16 fee (US$32 for a family) through the mail.  Now, in addition to three forms of identification, all boaters older than the age of 14 must be fingerprinted after applying in person for a permit.

   The new measures are part of a wider effort to increase

security following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The INS and the U.S. Coast Guard will also increase spot checks on the Great Lakes this summer, Ms. Weissman said.

 

   Boaters who do not have a Canadian Border Boat Landing Permit can expect more intense monitoring to ensure they stop at a U.S. port of entry or automated video stations, called Outlying Area Reporting Stations.  "The border patrol will be going out and doing spot checks more frequently than ever to make sure people are complying and the Coast Guard will be working with us in a concerted effort," Ms. Weissman said.

 

   The border patrol in Buffalo, N.Y., has beefed up its fleet of boats and has added a helicopter to patrol the coast of Lake Erie. Ed Duda, a border patrol sector supervisor in Buffalo, said his office is also adding 40 new agents.

   "We owe it to the people," Mr. Duda said. "We are not out to make it difficult or spoil anyone's fun."

Most oil polluting oceans comes from runoff, rivers, small boats, not tanker spills

   WASHINGTON —A new study says the vast majority of the human-related petroleum released into U.S. coastal waters comes from consumers, not the ships that carry the oil.

   The National Research Council reported May 23rd that about 29 million gallons of oil enters the oceans around North America each year as a result of human activities. Of that, the largest share, 15.6 million gallons, comes from rivers and runoff, largely from such things as street runoff, industrial waste, municipal wastewater, and wastewater from refineries.  

   In addition, 1.6 million gallons of the pollution comes from recreational vessels, where two-stroke engines that

mix oil and gas are often used in personal watercraft and

as outboard engines. The single largest source of oil in the oceans bordering North America is natural seeps from undersea oil sources, releasing an estimated 46.4 million gallons annually.

   Worldwide, vessel and pipeline spills are blamed for release of 32.5 million gallons annually into the oceans. Runoff adds another 41 million gallons and international operational discharges from vessels, such as from cargo washing, was listed as producing an added 78 million gallons of pollution. Such discharges are illegal in North American waters.

   The National Research Council is an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

4 Ohio Rivers still badly polluted, U.S. study says

WASHINGTON - The Maumee River is one of four Ohio rivers that are badly contaminated, have not been cleaned up as the government pledged, and are continuing to pollute the Great Lakes, according to a new report prepared for Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio).

After studying the GAO report, DeWine said he is introducing a bill authorizing up to $50 million per year to the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office for grants to states to clean up the 26 "contaminated areas of concern.'' That compares with $14.5 million currently for the office's base budget and $3.2 million for state grants.

 DeWine is co-chairman of the Great Lakes Task Force. The GAO is the congressional watchdog agency. As of last month, according to the GAO report, none of the 26 contaminated areas in the Great Lakes Basin for which the United States is responsible has completed the three stages of the remedial action plans designed to clean up shoreline where most of the contamination occurs, and none has been "restored to beneficial use.''

The other problem rivers in Ohio are the Ashtabula, the Black, and the Cuyahoga.  The Maumee River is traditionally best known for its spawning habitat and reproductive capabilities of walleyes for Lake Erie’s western basin.

Deadly Canadian hospital mistakes face study

U.S. report in 1999 found mistakes are deadlier than AIDS

 

   An estimated 10,000 Canadians die every year as a result of preventable mistakes in hospitals -- about 3% of patients. But collecting data on these deaths has been erratic and unreliable.  So two of the country's largest health agencies, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, announced the launch of a study yesterday to examine the extent of the problem.

 

   But in 1999, the U.S. Institute of Medicine blew the doors open with a devastating report, titled To Err is

Human, which cited medical error as the eighth-leading cause of death in the United States, killing almost 100,000 patients each year -- as many as motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer and AIDS combined. The report concluded medical errors, which are mostly caused by systemic rather than individual failures, cost the U.S. economy $29-billion a year.

   “As many as 80% of medical errors involve ‘human factors’, but many doctors, nurses and other health care workers are reluctant to disclose their mistakes out of fear of lawsuits,” said Dr. Peter Norton, head of family medicine at the University of Calgary, who will also work on the Canadian study.

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