New National Marine Sanctuary Much Closer to a Berth in Wisconsin

Oct. 5, 2015

By Moira Harrington

Wisconsin Sea Grant welcomed President Obama’s announcement today that the nation’s newest NOAA national marine sanctuary is moving closer to a designation along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Manitowoc, Sheboygan or Ozaukee counties and in the waters in a location to be determined, having met preliminary national significance criteria and management considerations. As proposed, it encompasses 875 square miles.

The Wisconsin sanctuary is currently on a so-called inventory list and now heads into a more intensive public comment period and scoping, preparation of an environmental impact statement and a management plan. Once those processes are complete, the clock would start ticking toward official designation. The timeframe for those actions is not fully known but could range from months to a year. If successful, Wisconsin would host only one of 14 National Marine Sanctuaries and only the second one in fresh water.

The Wisconsin site has been selected, in large measure, based on the success of shipwreck explorations in state waters of Lake Michigan. There are 59 Wisconsin shipwrecks listed on the National Register of Historic Places, far more than any other state. Of that number, a proposed 15 would be within the designated sanctuary boundaries. Another 24 known wrecks are in the proposed sanctuary but are not, at this point, on the register.

Since the 1990s, Sea Grant has supported maritime explorations through grant funding in collaboration with the Wisconsin Historical Society’s (WHS) maritime archeology program.

In addition to shipwreck exploration, mapping and registration for protection, the Sea Grant-WHS partnership extends public understanding of the nautical past by creating and sharing land-based signage that explains the shipwrecks’ significance; preparing geocaches, which are an innovative, accessible and active way to extend the learning; and co-hosting an entertaining and informative website, wisconsinshipwrecks.org.           

“Wisconsin has a rich maritime heritage and an equally rich legacy of preserving that heritage,” said Jim Hurley, Sea Grant’s director. “We are thrilled the national panel looking at siting the newest sanctuary has chosen the Great Lakes to move forward. It means continued historic preservation, along with tourism for an important area of the state and highlights an important ecosystem.” 

Marine sanctuaries are now found in Lake Huron, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and touch states such as Hawaii, Texas, California and Massachusetts. Sanctuaries are established to protect natural and cultural features while allowing people to use and enjoy the waters in a sustainable way. No disruption of commercial or recreational activities occurs. Sanctuary waters provide a secure habitat for species close to extinction and protect historically significant shipwrecks and artifacts. Sanctuaries also serve as natural classrooms and laboratories.

Wisconsin applied for the sanctuary designation in December 2014 and competed against four other proposed locations. After an initial screening, Wisconsin and a site on the Potomac River emerged as the strongest applicants. The review panel was impressed by the broad range of support for the Lake Michigan proposal from the governor’s office on behalf of the state of Wisconsin; the cities of Two Rivers, Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Port Washington; Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties; NGOs and area businesses. The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, along with the WHS, were also highly instrumental in the application process.

The sanctuary’s application reads, in part, “The proposed Wisconsin sanctuary encompasses a key portion of an early transportation corridor that was critical to the expansion of the United States and the development of the agricultural and the industrial core of the nation.” 

Details on how to participate in the public comment period on the proposal are at sanctuaries.noaa.gov/wisconsin/

The Future of Salmon and Trout Stocking in Lake Michigan

Five species of salmon and trout support a world-class recreational fishery in Lake Michigan. Stocking has played an important role in maintaining the balance between predators and baitfish, such as the non-native alewife, since the late 1960s. If too many salmon and trout are in the lake, baitfish decline and salmon starve or fall prey to disease. If too few salmon and trout are in the lake, the non-native alewife could foul beaches and affect native species.

Ongoing research is being used to investigate the possibility that changes to stocking policy could improve fisheries and limit the risk of predator-prey imbalance. Fisheries managers in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana will set a stocking policy for Lake Michigan salmon and trout by fall of 2012.

Lake Michigan Salmon Stocking Workshop
Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, Michigan
Saturday, April 14, 2012
1:00–4:30 PM (Eastern)

This half-day workshop is open to the public at no charge. Participants will learn more about specific options for stocking policy and have the opportunity to speak with fisheries managers about the future of Lake Michigan fisheries.

• Registration Form
• Agenda (PDF)
• Map (JPG)

Additional Resources

• Revisiting Stocking Policy for Lake Michigan
• Lake Michigan Salmon Stocking Cuts Being Considered
• Status of Pelagic Prey Fishes in Lake Michigan, 2011 (PDF)
• Status and Trends of Prey Fish Populations in Lake Michigan, 2011 (PDF)
• Status of Lake Michigan Salmonines in 2011 (PDF)

Source: WDNR, Michigan Sea Grant

Fish egg collection facilities start operating March 20

Public invited to watch Lake Michigan fish

KEWAUNEE -- Recent warm weather has state egg collection facilities up and running earlier than usual to produce the next generation of Lake Michigan trout and salmon. The public is invited to come along and watch the process and see the fish up close through viewing windows as they “climb” the fish ladder into the facilities.

The C.D. Besadny Anadromous Fish Facility in Kewaunee County along with the Root River Steelhead facility in Racine County are both checking fish for the first time March 20. Watch the video showing the egg collection process.

Both facilities turned on the pumps last week to send river water through the fish ladder and facilities in preparation for egg collection and juggled getting fish out the door at some hatcheries from last year before getting ready for this year's take.

“Everything is on the fast track this year,” says John Komassa, southeastern Wisconsin Hatchery group leader for the Department of Natural Resources. “At the Root River, we're about a week ahead of normal.”

At the Besadny facility, they're starting operation a week ahead of what's normal and three weeks ahead of when they turned on the pumps in 2011 during a cold and late spring, says Mike Baumgartner, facility manager.

“The recent warmer weather made the ice go out sooner and because the ice was going out and the snow was melting, the water levels in the river went up,” he says. “That’s a trigger that attracts the fish, as well as daylight and water temperatures.”

Lake Michigan trout and salmon do not successfully reproduce in the warmer temperatures and fluctuating water levels found in Wisconsin tributaries to Lake Michigan. So DNR gives them a hand. Once the eggs and milt have been collected from the fish, the fish are released back to the rivers for anglers to catch. The eggs are fertilized on site and sent to state hatcheries where they are incubated, hatched, and stocked back in the river more than a year later.

This year, the Besadny facility turned on its pumps March 15 and overnight had about 100 fish move into the collection ponds, Baumgartner says. “We are scheduled to sort through our fish Monday for the first time and then at least weekly, more often if the run is strong enough, through about mid-April to continue sorting and spawning fish from the length of the run.”

The Besadny facility is located at 3884 Ransom Moore Lane, off of County Highway F, west of Kewaunee, on the west bank of the Kewaunee River. The site is open daily, dawn to dusk and the building is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday. Baumgartner says that people who want to watch the egg processing will want to call ahead (920) 388-1025 to make sure it's going on that day and to come between 9 a.m. and noon.

The Root River facility is located on the Root River, inside Lincoln Park, in Racine. After March 20, DNR will be processing fish at the facility on Mondays, and thanks to a Salmon Unlimited volunteer, the viewing window is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Komassa says. People can call ahead to (262) 594-6218 to confirm the processing is occurring.

CLICK HERE to see uTube video regarding the Hatchery.

DNR Public Meeting - Green Bay Great Lakes Spotted Musky Management Plan

December 2 – DNR Fisheries Staff will present the Draft Green Bay Great Lakes Spotted Musky Management Plan from 6-8 p.m. in the Auditorium at the Brown County Central Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay. The purpose of the meeting is to review and get feedback on the draft management plan for the Green Bay muskellunge fishery and re-establishment program. The draft management plan identifies fisheries objectives, strategies and management recommendations to achieve the previously established goals for the fishery. For more information, please call David Rowe (920) 662-5480 or Mike Donofrio (715) 582-5050.

Green Bay Great Lakes Spotted Musky Management Plan Meeting

December 2 – DNR Fisheries Staff will present the Draft Green Bay Great Lakes Spotted Musky Management Plan from 6-8 p.m. in the Auditorium at the Brown County Central Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay. The purpose of the meeting is to review and get feedback on the draft management plan for the Green Bay muskellunge fishery and re-establishment program. The draft management plan identifies fisheries objectives, strategies and management recommendations to achieve the previously established goals for the fishery. For more information, please call David Rowe (920) 662-5480 or Mike Donofrio (715) 582-5050.

Wisconsin Lake Convention March 30-April 1

GREEN BAY -- Lake lovers can hear national experts report on how Wisconsin lakes stack up to other lakes around the country, and get in-depth, hands-on instruction in how to safeguard healthy lakes at the 32nd annual Wisconsin Lakes Convention in Green Bay March 30-April 1.

“We used to look at the center of the lake and judge the whole lake on the quality of the center water,” says Jeff Bode, longtime leader of Department of Natural Resources lakes program, one of the sponsors of the convention.

“We pretty much ignored the shallow water and shoreline. What we’ve come to recognize, and what national study showed, is that both water quality and condition are driven by what happens on the shoreline and shallow water areas of the lake.”

The National Lakes Assessment, a multi-year study that looked at hundreds of lakes nationwide, including about two dozen in Wisconsin, found that 56 percent of lakes nationally were healthy. The leading stressor is poor lakeshore habitat, and such habitat was rated poor in 36 percent of lakes.

Neil Kamman, an environmental scientist with Vermont’s Lakes and Ponds Management Program, will talk about the study and what the results mean for state and national management of lakes.

Convention attendees can select from 15 workshops and participate in any of more than 90 sessions built around lake themes, many of which concentrate on shallow water areas and next to the water.

For example, there will be sessions explaining the new state law banning phosphorus fertilizers for residential use, and a session on organic and low-maintenance options for lawn care. Robert Kirschner, Director of Restoration Ecology at the Chicago Botanic Garden, will talk about native plants that can anchor shorelines against erosion and provide an appealing landscape.

“The Wisconsin Lakes Convention marks the start of the spring season and the learning, sharing and plain hard work that goes into keeping our wonderful lakes safe and sound,” says Bob Korth, longtime lake team leader for UW-Extension in Stevens Point. “Folks claim that more can be learned about lakes at the convention in just a few days than could be gathered with weeks of emails and phone calls.”

The convention is sponsored by the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership, a nationally recognized and successful collaboration of the Wisconsin Association of Lakes, DNR, and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Participants can attend, and pay for, all three days or individual days. For full convention details, including online registration and printable registration forms, go to UW-Extensions Lakes Convention Web site at http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/uwexlakes/conventions/

Asian Carp Update

Update from the Environment Report

http://environmentreport.org/story.php?story_id=4835

http://environmentreport.org/asian_carp.php

Mich. Takes Invasive Carp Battle to Supreme Court

By TARYN LUNTZ of Greenwire

Published: December 22, 2009

Michigan has taken its fight against invasive Asian carp to the U.S. Supreme Court, suing Illinois to force the closure of Chicago-area waterways that provide the fish a pathway to the Great Lakes. [Full Story]

Source: New York Times

Van Hollen joins fight against carp

He seeks to stop fish invasion of Lake Michigan

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Wednesday he is willing to use his official authority to try to stop Asian carp from invading Lake Michigan.

"I am determined to take appropriate action to ensure that the integrity of Lake Michigan is not harmed by the introduction of these carp," Van Hollen said in a statement. [Full Story]

Source: JSOnline

Editorial: Great Lakes a step closer to recovery

The Great Lakes got a huge shot in the arm last week when President Obama signed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

This measure commits $475 million to a restoration and recovery program for the largest source of freshwater in the world. It also makes the federal government and the eight states that border Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario partners in the effort. [Full Story]

Source: The Sheboygan Press

ENVIRONMENT-US: Greatest of Lakes Hit by Climate Change

By Adrianne Appel

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, Oct 22 (IPS/IFEJ) - The weather was right for swimming this summer along the shores of Lake Michigan, but on many days, the only living things seen on the beach were gulls, picking away at zebra mussels ensnared in a thick, green slime that covered every rock, pebble and grain of sand for miles. [Full Story]

Source: Inter Press Service

DNR on the ball for Milwaukee area salmon anglers

“The salmon are coming; the salmon are coming,” Paul Revere might’ve shouted this if his historical ride was for the benefits of fall, southeastern Wisconsin anglers. Indeed, this is a major fishing event, and it signals fall has arrived.

Here’s what the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources says.

50 places to fish from shore within 60 minutes of MilwaukeeNew resources spotlight fishing the fall spawning runs

MADISON – Like clockwork, it’s that time of year when trout and salmon begin staging in the river mouths and harbors – ready to run the course back to their spawning grounds.

Full Story: Click Here

Input session planned on Fox River & Lower Green Bay “Area of Concern”

DNR and US Environmental Protection Agency to host

GREEN BAY - The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the United States Environmental Protection Agency will host a public input session for the Lower Green Bay and Fox River Area of Concern on Thursday July 23rd from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Center Auditorium.

In the 1980s, Lower Green Bay (out to Long Tail Point and Point Au Sable) and the Fox River below the De Pere Dam were listed as one of 43 Great Lakes Areas of Concern by the International Joint Commission of Canada and the United States.

Areas of Concern are places where contaminated sediment, poor water quality, or habitat problems affect the use of the waterway such that it needs priority attention. Goals or targets must be set, and then met, for each of the problems before the area can be considered restored. The end goal is for all of the Areas of Concern to be restored and protected so that they can be “delisted,” or removed from the list of Great Lakes Areas of Concern.

The purpose of this public input session is to share information about problems in the Area of Concern and restoration goals (known as “delisting targets”) that have been developed to address them. Input received at the session will be included in the Lower Green Bay and Fox River Area of Concern delisting targets report that will be finalized in the summer of 2009.

Problems identified in the Lower Green Bay and Fox River Area of Concern are related to: fish and wildlife habitat, populations, health, and consumption advisories. Other populations including plankton (free floating plants and animals) and benthos (bottom living plants and animals), nutrient pollution and undesirable algae, beach closings, aesthetics, and restrictions on drinking water and dredging.

Identifying the restoration goals for each of the problems is only one step in removing Lower Green Bay and Fox River from the list of Great Lakes Areas of Concern. “The process will take time and commitment, and like most of the other Areas of Concern, restoration is still in progress, “ said John Perrecone, RAP/AOC Program Manager for the US EPA Great Lakes National Programm Office. Of the 43 Great Lakes Areas of Concern designated in the United States and Canada, only three have been delisted and two more are considered in recovery.

Educators Chart Course for Great Lakes Curricula

Madison 7/10/2009 — Washburn, Wis., will be a port of call for 15 teachers and environmental educators from around the Great Lakes region July 11-12, as part of an educational workshop cruising Lake Superior aboard the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) research vessel, R/V Lake Guardian. The group is spending a week on the water, conducting research alongside scientists while learning about ecological processes and lake systems. Their goal is to integrate current Great Lakes research into their curricula and programs.

“Understanding Great Lakes and ocean sciences is key to making informed decisions on coastal and ocean management and personal stewardship issues,” said James Lubner, education coordinator for the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, who helped organize the workshop. “COSEE Great Lakes is engaging educators, both formal and informal, in ways that will enable them to more effectively give their students a deeper understanding of our inland seas — the Great Lakes — and their influence on our quality of life and our national prosperity.” Workshop participants came from as far away as Ohio, with three Wisconsin educators representing Elkhart Lake, Spring Valley, and Clintonville.

Highlights of the week include firsthand experiences with Lakes Superior's ecology, geology, geography, weather, and biogeochemical processes. Educators from the Wisconsin and Minnesota Sea Grant programs, along with EPA staff from Chicago and Duluth, Minn., are facilitating the expedition, assisting participants in gathering research data on aquatic organisms and water quality, and helping translate the onboard experience into meaningful classroom lessons with an emphasis on human impacts and parallels between Great Lakes and ocean systems.

The Guardian left Duluth on July 7, followed the North Shore of Lake Superior, crossed to the waters off Michigan's Isle Royale, and then traversed open water to rendezvous with researchers on the Keweenaw Peninsula. On July 11 and 12, it will stop in Washburn, Wis., where participants will kayak in a coastal wetland with representatives of Northland College.

The expedition, “Shipboard and Shoreline Science,” is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Sea Grant Program through the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Great Lakes.

Washburn Itinerary:

Saturday, July 11

• 4:00 PM Arrive in Washburn; shore leave
• 6:00 PM Dinner
• 8:00 PM Lecture: Sturgeon conservation and restoration

Sunday, July 12

• 8:00 AM Lecture: Coastal wetlands
• 9:00 AM Tour: Fish Creek system (Ashland) with sampling (secchi disks and seining)
• 12:00 PM Lunch (Ashland)
• 2:00 PM Lecture: Lake physics and climate change (Washburn)
• 4:00 PM Sample processing
• 6:00 PM Dinner
• 8:00 PM Depart Washburn

Follow the educators around Lake Superior at http://coseegreatlakes.net/weblog/. More information about the cruise is at http://coseegreatlakes.net/events/shipboard09.

Quagga mussels overtaking zebra mussels in Great Lakes

Zebra mussels are being muscled out of the Great Lakes by cousin quagga.

Research done by a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate showed the quagga mussel to have become the dominant of the two species in the calm waters of the Great Lakes while the zebra mussel covers the bottoms of faster-moving waters in rivers and streams, UW-Madison announced in a news release. [Full Story]

Source: The Capital Times

Lake Michigan sport fish harvests down in 2008

MADISON – High fuel prices in summer 2008 and bad fishing weather contributed to across-the-board decreases in the number of trout and salmon caught by Lake Michigan anglers in 2008, state fisheries official say.

Lower forage base levels may have contributed as well to the lower harvests, and for chinook, a lake-wide reduction in stocking levels since 2006 also may have shown up in anglers’ creels in 2008, they say.

Anglers spent a total of 2.5 million hours fishing Lake Michigan and tributaries, down from 3.1 million hours the previous year. While angler effort has been slowly declining in Lake Michigan since the 1980s, anglers spent less time on the water in 2009 than in any other year than 2000, angler surveys show.

“The weather was off for fishing, and with gas at $4 a gallon, more anglers decided they didn’t want to go out and look for the fish,” says Brad Eggold, Southern Lake Michigan fisheries supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources.

Unusual weather patterns kept the chinook farther away from shore and scattered throughout the water column, and the coho fishing also didn’t follow its normal pattern of starting off strong in spring in Kenosha area waters and slowly moving northward, Eggold says.

“In the past, when chinook and coho numbers dropped, boaters went out 12 miles off shore to locate and catch steelhead,” he says. “This didn’t happen this year, most likely due to gas prices and consequently, the catch for steelhead are low as are the overall salmon and trout catch.”
Anglers who fish Lake Michigan tributaries were the only category of anglers tracked in the survey that actually spent more time chasing their quarry in 2008 than the previous year.

Wisconsin anglers pulled in more than 650,000 fish of all species from Lake Michigan, with decreases in harvests of brook, rainbow, brown and lake trout, as well as yellow perch, and chinook and coho salmon. Lake Michigan anglers harvested 256,796 chinook in 2008; that places it in the top 10 years of harvest but down from the phenomenal 431,143 the previous year. The fish were larger, a good sign that the reduction in chinook stocking instituted by Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan in 2006 is working to bring chinook numbers closer in line with the forage base to sustain good fishing into the future, Eggold says.

“Chinook stocking was reduced lake-wide by 25 percent in 2006 to balance the amount of forage per numbers of fish,” says Eggold. “Because of the salmon’s maturity schedule, we saw little or no effect on harvest in 2007. The fewer, but larger fish in 2008 could be a sign that the reductions are doing what we needed them to do.”

What can anglers expect for Lake Michigan fishing in 2009?

“Gas prices are half the price they were a year ago and provided the weather cooperates and prey base stays adequate, anglers should continue to see solid numbers of chinook and a bounce back in coho,” says Eggold.

Additional information on chinook fishing can be found on the DNR Web site, including a chart showing overall trout and salmon harvests, and harvests broken down by species, in addition to more information on chinook salmon; the best seasons for Lake Michigan year-round chinook shore fishing.

More information on Lake Michigan fisheries is also available on the DNR Web site. The Lake Michigan Hotline at (414) 382-7920 features up-to-date fishing reports and conditions.

Invasive species grow to 188 in Great Lakes

By Don Lajoie, The Windsor Star

There are now 188 invasive species identified in the Great Lakes and while chances of ridding the water of established populations is considered slim, steps are being taken to control them and the public is called upon to help.

That was the message Sarah Bailey, research scientist for the Great Lakes laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Science Fisheries - Oceans Canada brought to an audience at Windsor’s main library branch Sunday. [Full Story]

Source: The Windsor Star

Perch, pickerel, bass return to Cootes after carp leave

Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator

The burly, bronze-coloured carp thrashed strongly as Melissa Fuller displayed it to a crowd of spring break walkers at the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) fishway separating Cootes Paradise from the open water of Hamilton Harbour. [Full Story]

Source: The Spec.Com

Watch for Great Lakes invaders moving inland, group told

Green Bay - University of Notre Dame professor David Lodge has some advice for inland lakefront property owners worried about unwanted organisms invading their seemingly isolated waters: Keep an eye on the Great Lakes.

"The Great Lakes are a beachhead - just the first stopping point for species arriving in North America," Lodge told a group of about 400 people who are gathered in Green Bay this week for the 31st annual Wisconsin Lakes Convention.

"If you want to know what's coming next," he said Thursday, "look at what's already in the Great Lakes." [Full Story]

Source: JSOnline

Back-to-back snowy winters help replenish Great Lakes

Two extraordinarily snowy winters in a row have contributed to rebounding water levels in the Great Lakes basin, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The 2007-2008 winter had 87.4 inches of snow, the third-highest in Green Bay history, according to the National Weather Service in Ashwaubenon. This season has produced 86.2 inches of snow so far, good for fourth place in the record books. [Full Story]

Source: Green Bay Press Gazette