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06/23/2007Smaller fish big concern for charter captains
Frank McCracken, left, and Harry Day work on fishing tackle on McCracken’s boat, Amy M, in Frankfort’s East Shore Marina. McCracken said he doesn’t think there’s much that can be done about invasive species, but he doesn’t think they will destroy the charter fishing industry. ONEKAMA — Capt. Denny Blue mulls the question a moment and does the math: six charter boats dock at Portage Lake in the Lake Michigan harbor town of Onekama. Two hundred or more boats based on Portage Lake are rigged to catch sport fish, their owners bearing the hefty expense mainly to pursue chinook, also known as king salmon. "You multiply what I've said about Onekama, and multiply starting all the way down at the south end of Lake Michigan, every one of those towns would be impacted significantly if the salmon fishing went belly-up,” said Blue, a charter boat captain since 1984. Charter captains like Blue pay a lot of attention to Lake Michigan and news about invasive species because they understand just how devastating a salmon collapse — like one that happened in recent years in Lake Huron — could be for the region's economy. From Manistee to Petoskey, 86 charter boat operations are listed with the Michigan Charter Boat Association, according to the group's Web site. The decline in chinook population in Lake Huron prompted an estimated 75 percent drop in fishing activity and cost 10 ports on that lake around $19 million per year in lost economic activity since 2004, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Josh Mills, superintendant of Frankfort, a popular Lake Michigan fishing hub, said those who chase salmon and steelhead pump lots of money into his city. "We thrive on charter fishing,” Mills said. Lately, salmon fishing in Lake Michigan has been good, but the fish are smaller than in recent years. "Our biggest problem in the last few years has been limiting out too early in the trip, which is a good problem to have,” Blue said. But increased numbers of small fish is exactly what anglers saw in Lake Huron before that salmon fishery collapsed around 2003. 'This was not predicted' What happened in Lake Huron and what could occur in Lake Michigan prompts more questions than answers. Michigan manages more than twice as much fresh water than any other state in the nation, but spends far less than other states on resources management. The per-acre average is 95 cents. That's compared to a national per-acre average of $15. There's little relief in sight, considering Michigan's deepening budgetary woes. "We're in a bind,” said James Johnson, a fisheries research biologist with the Department of Natural Resources in Alpena. "It's really making things tough for us.” Johnson said Lake Huron's salmon collapse took him by surprise. "This was not predicted,” Johnson said. "When I was in college, I was told big lakes and oceans do not change fast.” The salmon population collapsed in Lake Huron because of changes in the lower food chain, most likely brought about by the spread of invasive zebra and quagga mussels. Biologists have observed the near-disappearance of a crustacean called Diporeia, a shrimp-like creature that once was food for alewives, the preferred meal of salmon. The vacuum left behind after the dramatic drop in Lake Huron alewife numbers paved the way for another invasive species, the round goby, to elbow its way into the lower-level food chain. The goby is a small fish that salmon don't like to eat. In the few years leading to that Lake Huron collapse, the average weight of 3-year-old chinook in Lake Huron declined from between 12 and 20 pounds to 8 pounds, Johnson said. Fishermen subsequently saw an 85 percent decline in the chinook salmon population. Johnson said studies show the weight of chinook in Lake Michigan also is in decline, but at a slower rate. However, he voiced concern over the obvious drop in numbers of large fish that are being caught. "This is an indication that Lake Michigan may be approaching what's already happened in Lake Huron,” he said. Better prognosis for Michigan Brian Murphy, who owns the Tackle Box in Frankfort with his wife, Christine, said he's concerned that what happened in Lake Huron could happen here. "I used to fish over there in the early '90s and it was absolutely the best fishing I've ever done on the Great Lakes,” he said. Murphy, a board member on the Benzie County Sports Fishing Association, said lots of recreational fishermen now trailer their boats from the eastern part of the state to Frankfort to fish for salmon. Neighboring ports such as Manistee and Ludington also are playing host to big numbers of eastern Michigan anglers. "We've got more and more guys every year who say they've had enough catching (Lake Huron) lake trout,” a species that pales in fight and flavor to the much-preferred chinook, Murphy said. Comparisons between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are difficult to make, however. "One thing to remember is Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are two very different lakes,” said Mark Tonello, a fisheries biologist with the DNR in Cadillac, who monitors the recreational fishery on Lake Michigan. He said differences between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan make a salmon collapse in Michigan much less likely. Lake Michigan is more productive than Lake Huron because there are more large urban rivers that empty into it, bringing phosphorous and nitrogen and more life. But some of that production could be cancelled by quagga mussels, which gobble the forage on the low end of the food chain. Lower levels of alewives found in counts prompted the DNR to reduce chinook salmon stocking by 30 to 35 percent. "If you don't have a good population of alewives you're not going to have a good population of salmon,” Tonello said. "We want to avoid a boom and bust situation.” Fragile Great Lakes The uncertainty raises red flags within the community of people who make their living in the Great Lakes fishing industry. "We definitely are worried about all these freighters bringing all this foreign stuff in; something new comes in every year,” said Mike Bradley, owner of East Shore Marina in Frankfort. In addition to questions about the salmon population, anglers also worry about Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, or VHS, the potentially devastating fish disease first spotted in Lake Michigan this year, and the Asian carp, a monstrous species that could take over the lakes if it reaches Lake Michigan through the Chicago River. Invasives have transformed the Great Lakes and no one has come up with an estimate of what economic damages the region has suffered, said David Lodge, professor of biological sciences and director of the Center for Aquatic Conservation at the University of Notre Dame. Lodge, who has lobbied Congress for better management of shipping pathways to prevent invasive species, said a 10-year-old study found the impact in the Great Lakes region of zebra and quagga mussels put the tab for industry and municipalities at $150 million annually. That figure estimates the cost of cleaning and maintaining water intakes infested with mussels in today's dollars. "These costs are probably dramatic underestimates of financial damage and certainly do not include either the environmental damages or damages to commercial and recreational fishing,” Lodge said. Jerry Rank, a charter boat captain who runs a boat out of Frankfort, is a director for the Benzie Fishery Coalition, and president pro-tem of the village of Beulah. He said something needs to be done to prevent the spread of invasive species. "I do know that somehow that needs to be controlled,” Rank said. "The Great Lakes are just too fragile. They can't withstand that anymore.”
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