DNR shows M Lacs W/E pop drop

[Lee Borgersen]

                                               




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Advisory committee examines DNR data showing walleye population drop in Mille Lacs
 
 Dec 17, 2015

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ISLE—The Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee met Thursday to hear how the Department of Natural Resources arrived at its stark assessment of the walleye population's health in Mille Lacs Lake.




 

                   

The committee's third meeting, at Appeldoorn's Sunset Bay Resort, focused on the fall assessment. The study helps the DNR determine fish population estimates for the lake.

In a presentation that took up the bulk of the meeting time, DNR staff explained their methodology for gathering and analyzing data for the assessment. The data showing population decline on the lake was clear: although there are periodic spikes from year to year, both male and female walleye populations are trending downward on the lake in the long term.


Some members of the Mille Lacs public have called the DNR's data into question, which also happened at the advisory meeting when Crow Wing County Commissioner and Advisory Committee member Paul Koering told DNR staff he wasn't impressed with their presentation.

"You're not coming across as very confident about the assessment to me," Koering said. "I'd like to see things more exact, but it's not an exact science."

The DNR measures population via surveys using methods such as gillnets and electrofishing. They try and minimize the effect of outside variables on the data by using consistent locations, temperatures, and timing for the surveys.

However, the data gathering and analysis isn't perfect. DNR Fisheries Research and Policy Manager Melissa Treml said there was roughly a 20 percent margin of error for estimating walleye population.


Several on the advisory committee pointed out the lack of forage fish for walleye to eat and suggested a more aggressive harvest of walleye would help alleviate the problem.

The DNR studies organisms several steps below walleye on the food chain, looking at both feeder fish like ciscoes as well as zooplankton.

Brad Parsons, the DNR's Central Region Fisheries Manager, said the DNR is making progress on setting up a new Mille Lacs Lake facility in rental space in Garrison. About five staffers—a combination of existing DNR staff and new positions—will work at the new facility, Parsons said. The new office could be up and running sometime early next year.

There's also a proposal to actually build a more permanent and extensive facility on Mille Lacs, but this would require the Minnesota Legislature to appropriate funding.


The advisory committee is scheduled to meet again Jan. 11, where they will learn more about the legal framework that dictates how the DNR sets harvest limits with the American Indian tribes who mass harvest on the lakes via the negotiations on the joint "technical committee."

DNR Fisheries chief Don Pereira said although the tribal bands felt public attendance at the technical committee meetings would violate the legal framework, Commissioner Tom Landwehr is talking directly with the bands to find "other options," constituting a "heavy level of dialogue." For example, a DNR biologist who attends the technical committee meetings could brief the advisory committee, he said.

ZACH KAYSER may be reached at 218-855-5860 or Zach.Kayser@brainerddispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZWKayser.


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