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The Courts decision could have serious long-term consequences for every angler on Lake Michigan.
Native Americans will be
allowed to continue commercial salmon fishing this year in Lake
Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay.
U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen ruled Thursday
that the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians could take up to
80,000 pounds of salmon from the bay, instead of the 90,000 pounds
allowed by tribal regulations.
Enslen also denied a request by the Department of
Natural Resources for a
preliminary injunction that would have required the
tribe to remove its fishing nets from the bay.
K.L. Cool, Michigan DNR director, had made a request for an injunction forcing the Indians to lift their nets from Grand Traverse Bay
(citing three incidents where boats hit the nets),
Cool accuses the tribes of "making a sham of
the negotiated process" that brought about the agreement and violating its terms.
In addition to denying virtually all of
Cool's claims, William Rastetter, the Leland attorney
representing the tribes, said that seeking a
short-term advantage could prove costly
for the state in the long run.
Rastetter said the tribes have marked the
nets properly (and a U.S. Coast Guard
inspection of the situation brought no complaints);
funded a widespread and expensive public education
campaign to make boaters aware of the
problem (a campaign he said the DNR refused to
assist); and have switched to subsurface nets in
deeper waters where most boats run.
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Indians now take about 5-10 percent of the
Great Lakes salmon in Michigan, however, salmon are migratory.
In many Western states, court-imposed
settlements have usually
awarded indigenous people 50 percent of the fish.
This Courts decision could have serious long-term consequences for every angler on Lake Michigan.
The DNR and the Grand Traverse Sport Fishing
Association contend that a 1985 court agreement prohibits commercial salmon
fishing by the tribe in Grand Traverse Bay ,they contend the 1985 agreement only allowed tribal fishing for salmon in a very narrow limited area of Nunn's Creek in Lake Huron.
"This is a very serious situation", said Ric Zehner, Grand Traverse Sportfishing Association, "Judge Enslen has ruled outside of the agreement set in place in 1985".
"Michigan anglers are virtually paying for the tribes to fish",said Zehner.
" To ensure and continue the existence of salmon in the Great Lakes, sports fishermen have paid and are paying for the salmon plantings program through purchasing an extra fishing trout/salmon license, Indian netters contribute nothing."
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians tribes agreement to gill net fish runs out in the year 2000, some anglers fear the tribes don't have to agree to anything. If they want, the Indians can
sit back for two years, let the agreement expire
and then start bigger fishing operations all over
the northern Great Lakes and even on inland lakes.
 Sportsman's Bill of Rights Introduced
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Associated Press
B
iologists say they've mapped out a plan to restock two Great Lakes with a species of fish thought to have died out more than 20 years ago.
Fisheries experts from the United States and Canada want to restore the once-plentiful blue pike by isolating DNA from what they believe is a rare specimen caught in 1989.
They hope to match the DNA to what are thought to be other scarce blue pike still living in lakes in Minnesota and Canada, then reintroduce positively identified fish into Lakes Erie and Ontario.
In what could prove to be the strangest breakthrough, DNA specialist Mary Burnham-Curtis hopes to cull genes from mucus on blue pike scales filed in envelopes half a century ago by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Blue pike flourished in Lake Erie at the turn of the century, becoming a favorite of anglers until overfishing pushed them to the brink of extinction in the 1970s.
Until now, scientists have had no way to positively determine whether a blue-colored pike is a true blue pike or simply a blue-pigmented yellow pike, said Dieter Busch, who heads the Lower Great Lakes Fishery Resources Office in Amherst, N.Y.
He said the scientific world might have acted prematurely when it declared the blue pike extinct in 1975, before DNA testing had been developed.
His team must prove that blue pike still exist before it can proceed with a restocking program.
The blue pike and yellow pike are both part of the perch family, but blue pike prefer much deeper water -- 60 feet or more -- than yellow pike and feed on different prey.
WI DNR asking fishermen to donate organs
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USFWS Press Releases
