Tag Archives: whitefish
Natural Connections: The Lake Superior Fishery in Wisconsin Waters
The boat engine rumbled and machinery whirred as a gillnet rose from the depths of Lake Superior. Captain Ross Lind managed the throttle so that the 55-foot-long gillnet-tug-turned-research-vessel named Hack Noyes moved toward the net at the same speed the net lifter reeled it in. A group of interested adults on this Museum-sponsored field trip gathered around the equipment. We were mesmerized by the clicking of the metal teeth on the spinning drum as they gripped and then released the line, and by the lengths of delicate nylon net attached to the line. Capable hands guided the net down a long, stainless-steel worktable and into the storage tub. (Check 
out the Museum’s Reels on Instagram and Facebook if you want to see a video of this operation.) Gillnets look like a long tennis net, anchored by weights along the lake bottom and held vertical by floats. Small fish swim right through, but bigger fish get caught. Whether a DNR biologist or a commercial fisherman is setting the net, they can choose the fish they target by the size of the mesh and the depth of set. >click to read< 19:28
‘There’s no future in it’: Parry Sound commercial fishers given ever-decreasing catch limits
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry announced it was “modernizing” the commercial fishery, including a move toward fishers digitally reporting their daily catch. “They just keep taking (our quota) away,” said Sandra LePage of Nobel, who owns B. LePage Fishery with her husband, Bernie, (whose father founded the famous fish restaurant Henry’s). In 2018, the LePage Fishery was allowed to harvest 34,559 pounds of whitefish; that has dropped annually. Now, for 2023, they are allowed to harvest 20,470 pounds. For lake trout, the max was 8,128 pounds in 2018, and for 2023, it is 4,894 pounds. Commercial fisher Bill Kalwaski, who is based out of Byng Inlet, said that when the lake trout population is high, the whitefish population is down, and “without the whitefish, there is no commercial fishery in the upper great lakes,” >click to read< 18:30
The Great Lakes-Iceland connection through the 100% Whitefish effort
While Great Lakes fish populations are constantly in a state of flux, one species has declined precipitously in the last decade: lake whitefish. But Great Lakes leaders and fisheries managers are looking ahead in planning to do more with less. And in the case of whitefish, a lot more. The search for a way to preserve an industry with a shrinking natural resource brought the Iceland Ocean Cluster (IOC) into focus. IOC was founded by Thor Sigfusson in 2012 with a dozen companies on-site. There are now 70. So, what is it? And could it work as a model for the Great Lakes’ new whitefish initiative? >click to read< 17:09
Everett’s Fisheries adds to fleet; Avis J comes aboard for 70th anniversary
For the past 70 years, the crews of the Everett’s Fisheries of Port Wing have plied the frigid waters of Lake Superior, wresting nets full of cisco chubs, lake trout, herring and whitefish from the big lake. A third generation of the Port Wing fishing clan established by Everett Johnson continues to fish and produce the smoked fish and Jeff Johnson intends to keep that tradition alive. To back up that determination, he recently purchased a new fishing boat, the Avis J, to add to Everett’s two-vessel fleet. Well, new to them at least. Photos, >click to read< 18:15
Inland Fisheries: A big fight in Lansing over fishing rules on the Great Lakes
Dana Serafin still hauls in 20,000-pound boatloads of whitefish to supply regional restaurants and markets, Native whitefish, the main livelihood for Serafin and other Great Lakes commercial fishermen, have been in decline for years amid changes to the food web, replaced in Serafin’s nets by healthier populations of walleye and lake trout that he’s not allowed to keep. Chinook salmon, once a favorite of recreational anglers on lakes Michigan and Huron, have also plummeted in Lake Michigan, and all but disappeared from Lake Huron. Battles are brewing over fishing rights from recreational, commercial, Native American, and environmental group meddling. Video, >click to read< 13:41
Know Your Fisherman: Henriksen Fisheries
The bountiful waters of Lake Michigan surround Door County, making it home to a vibrant fishing community that dates back to the mid-1800s. That community today includes several larger commercial fishing operations, including Henriksen Fisheries. The fishermen, Charlie and Will Henriksen, along with two year-round and several part-time employees. Henriksen, who’s from the Chicago area, got his first taste of Door County fishing some 40 years ago when he was recruited to help ice fish one winter. He arrived in the county at age 20 to assist his father, who had bought an old hotel in Ellison Bay, and, as the story goes, he never left. >click to read< 11:34
Bill to ban catching perch for profit has Saginaw Bay fishing company worried
Despite the sunny skies and the good catch, a shadow hangs over the boat. A trio of bills in the state House would, in part, stop commercial fishing of yellow perch and impose stricter regulations on commercial fishing. That worries Lakon Williams, whose family operates Bay Port Fish Co., which is based on the western shore of the Thumb, about 40 miles northeast of Bay City. “It would take away a fishery that we’ve had rights to since the 1800s, the yellow perch fishery. It’s always been a commercial fish in Saginaw Bay for us, it’s never been taken away,” she said. Video, 50 photo’s. >click to read< 15:16
I’m a 7th-generation Michigan commercial fisherman. 13 are left.
I am a seventh generation commercial fisherman on Lake Michigan. Our family has been fishing Michigan waters since 1826, since before Michigan was a state.,,, My Great, Great Grandfather Schyuler was one of the great pioneer fishermen and owned all of what is now J.W. Wells State Park in the Upper Peninsula. At one time back in the 1980’s our company, Ruleau Bros., employed over 100 people and produced over 50 million pounds of fish. We have about 15 employees today, due to continuing over-regulation by the DNR, invasive species, and down to having only one fish left to take … the whitefish. >click to read< 10:54
Commercial Fishing Operations Reporting Record Catch Along Lake Superior’s South Shore
Commercial fishing operations near the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior are reporting record numbers of whitefish and a strong recovery of lake trout from a low in the early 2000s. During a presentation to the state’s Natural Resources Board, Craig Hoopman, of Lake Superior whitefish, said he is seeing record numbers of young whitefish and a strong rebounding of lake trout numbers. Hoopman, who chairs the state Department of Natural Resources Lake Superior Commercial Fishing Board, said fishing has been phenomenal so far this year. “We’re averaging between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds of whitefish per day in the traps right now and releasing thousands of sub-legal fish,” said Hoopman. “There’s just multiple year classes of fish.” >click to read<12:38
Commercial fishing trial worries Lake Huron anglers
When the Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced a three-year trial to allow a commercial fishery to pursue whitefish in southern Lake Huron, recreational anglers took to social media to express their outrage. The state also is hoping that by allowing the commercial fisherman, Dana Serafin, to move his operation to southern Lake Huron, some of the fishing pressure in Saginaw Bay will be relieved. the state also announced a panel to look at the possible effects of proposals to raise fish in net pens in the Great Lakes. Read the rest here 20:30
Whitefish population healthy in Green Bay, Lake Michigan
Winter weather and state regulations, not a dropping whitefish population, led to some shortages of the popular species this spring. “It’s not a stock problem,” said Wisconsin Commercial Fisheries Association president Charlie Henriksen of Sister Bay, a commercial fishermen who sets nets in both Green Bay and Lake Michigan. “It’s a Mother Nature problem.” doorcountyadvocate.com Read more here 15:54
Commercial fishing is Petersen legacy as fourth generation continues a Muskegon tradition
MUSKEGON, MI – For a fourth generation Lake Michigan commercial fisherman trying to establish a fresh-fish retail and wholesale business in Muskegon, the 18-hour days are brutal. continued@mlive
