rehabilate walleye??

[Tom's Place]

About 12 months ago, the Canadians said that the said that if the Lake Erie walleye’s spawn was not very good in 2008 the walleye will have to be in a rehabilitated. I wrote that I did not know what they meant now we know. This year the Lake Erie Committee stated that our walleye is in a rehabilitation status. My Webster says that it means to be put into good condition again. HOW????
The Ontario netters will legally kill fewer walleyes this year than they did last year.
Ohio will kill as many walleyes as they can, last year we harvested an estimated 1.02 walleyes and this year we are permitted to kill 1.25 million eyes. Also Ohio will continue to kill spawning walleyes in the lake.-----Obviously there is a difference in the meaning of rehabilitation.
In 1998 we estimated a population of nearly 70 million that resulted in a Total Allowable Catch of a bit over 10 million walleyes, which proved to be a huge mistake. This knee jerk action resulted into such a low population in the following two years that the Great Lakes Fishing Commission issued a statement suggesting that because the Western Basin walleye population was precarious the users should use all tools available to protect spawning walleyes. They said the more walleyes able to spawn, the greater chance of a successful spawn. News papers described 1999 as the WALLEYE SEASON THAT WASN’T.
In 2003 we had a very good spawn, soon after, another knee jerk reaction increasing the TAC.
Seems as our managers were in a hurry to kill off the super hatch and we did.
In about a ten year period our walleye population dropped from about 70 million with a TAC of over 10 million down to a bit over18 million eyes and a TAC of about 2-1/2 million walleyes. Also a projected population decline to less that 16 million next year. That’s a big decline, is it because of a lack of good management? We keep the same failed policies in place starting with a TAC of about 14% and a policy of not protecting spawning walleyes. Same game plan, same results. Why is it so difficult to learn from history??
We had a weak hatch in 2002, 2004, and 2006, moderate in 2007 and below average in 2005 and 2008. This tells me that we should take actions to improve our walleye spawn in Erie. Am I reading this wrong???
Recently a DOW press release stated the Erie walleye fishing will be excellent this year even though our walleye’s population is declining.
I firmly believe that politics and economic issues play too big of a part in our Lake Erie walleye fishery. Making poor decisions will be reflected in the quality of our fishery as well as the economic issues related to the walleye. It may take a decade to recover from a single bad decision. A more conservative approach is required. At the peak of our walleye fishing we had packs of boats so thick that you couldn’t see the horizon. Seemed to me that we had about ½ million people fishing Lake Erie for walleyes every day. We sold about 1,200,000 annual fishing licenses back then. Ohio doesn’t sell any where near a million annual fishing licenses total today.
Economy and good catches go hand in hand---want more money improve our fishing.
Soon after Gov. Strickland took office, I scribbled a note to him asking that he suggest that DOW stop the knee jerk management decisions relating to Lake Erie.
I believe that when our managers believe that there is a big increase in our walleye population they should not jump on it immediately with both feet. Best to sit on it for a year and not start killing them off immediately.
Waiting a year will give them time to verify their findings and most importantly eliminate the very costly errors if their data was not correct. Do something right generally has positive results. Do something wrong and you get bad results.
History has proven our Erie walleye resource to be fragile. Our managers have been using a failed sledge hammer approach to manage this fishery, time to switch to a delicate tack hammer. TJM 3-30-09