(The editorial referred to here can be viewed at http://www.great-lakes.org/message.html )

September 8, 1998

Ronald E. Lambertson, Director
US Fish & Wildlife Service, Region 5
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035-9589

Mr. Lambertson:

Having been actively involved in aquatic recreational, exotic and management issues in the Great Lakes region for many years, I am dismayed at what has recently transpired about cormorants in Eastern Lake Ontario. That concern includes activities by USFWS. The express purpose of forwarding our enclosed editorial to you and other key USFWS and administration officials is to share that dismay and sense of urgency. We also insist that specific action steps must be taken to avert the continued ecological disaster and mismanagement being perpetrated on the people of this country and their resources, by USFWS officials.

The elevation and escalation of meaningless rhetoric has now culminated in this sad, unfortunate and illegal act that occurred on Little Galloo Island. USFWS and your office must accept its fair share of responsibility in the polarization over the agency's questionable management of the cormorant issue.

For a situation to have reached such monumental, contentious and dangerous proportions are unconscionable and must be dealt with immediately at the highest levels.

Sadly, the controversy is not new, it goes back over ten years and has now reached "an ecological disaster" as Bruce Shupp recently shared with me. Shupp, former chief of fisheries for NYSDEC, further states Little Galloo Island looks like "a victim of a nuclear disaster." Shupp adds FWS's actions these past ten years have "only served to polarize" partnerships and the recreational community. These concerns must not be taken lightly. Other areas across our country are sharing the same fate

1. Coho salmon dominated the salmonid harvest in the Illinois waters of Lake Michigan, with an increase of 66.4% from 1996. The total harvest was nearly 83,200 fish. The increase in harvest may have resulted in part from the discontinuation of the 5-3-2 bag limit rule in April.

2. Lake trout were numerically the second most important salmonid species. Nearly 5,900 lake trout were harvested, an increase of 123% compared to 1996.

3. Rainbow trout harvest decreased by 39.7% to 3,200 compared to 1996.

4. The brown trout harvest increased by 93.4% to 5,100 compared to 1996. In the past eleven years, the majority of the brown trout were harvested during the first six weeks of the survey (April and May), with the majority of the fish appearing to be two years of age. The number of fish stocked lakewide and the severity of the early spring weather strongly influences the size of the brown trout harvest.

5. Chinook salmon harvest decreased by 31.4% to 4,900 compared to 1996.

CHICAGO - Lake Michigan boaters reaching for the booze beware: Chicago police are cracking down. Thanks to a new portable Breathalyzer donated to the Police Department's marine unit by Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Illinois, busting drunken boaters will become much easier, police say. The Breathalyzer will be the first to be carried on a Chicago police boat.

"The new machine will save us quite a bit of time," said marine unit Sgt. Jim Meyers. "It will help us process OUI (operating under the influence) cases on the lake much easier."