MN proposes commercial lake trout take

[GLF]

Lake trout rebound prompts proposal

Responding to a strong comeback in the lake trout population, the Minnesota DNR soon may permit limited commercial fishing for the species in Minnesota waters of Lake Superior.

The Duluth News Tribune reports commercial fishermen would be allowed to take a small number of fish while providing research data on their catch to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The proposed change would mark the first significant step toward a commercial lake trout fishery in Minnesota since netting was banned in 1962.

In December, the Minnesota DNR proposed allowing commercial harvest of 3,000 lake trout in a zone near the Canadian border.

"If anything, it's a reflection that the lake is in pretty decent shape," said Don Schreiner, Lake Superior area fisheries supervisor with the Minnesota DNR. "If we're considering a commercial fishery along with a sport fishery in certain parts of the lake, we've come a long way from where we were."

The lake trout population has rebounded steadily since the late 1980s. Natural reproduction has increased over the past 15 years, and the proportion of wild lake trout in spring surveys has increased from 45 to 75 % in the past 10 years, according to the DNR.

Currently, Minnesota allows a handful of commercial fishermen to take a few hundred lake trout annually as part of DNR research. Members of the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa also are allowed to take a limited number of lake

trout based on 1854 treaty rights. In Wisconsin, 10 state-licensed commercial fishermen are allotted 10,750 lake trout annually. Anglers take about 19,000 lake trout per year in Minnesota waters, according to the DNR.

The program would be conducted on an experimental basis, and fishermen would be issued permits allowing them to use specific gear and to harvest a specified number of fish, Schreiner said. The allotment of 3,000 fish has been proposed for zone MN-3 reaching from the Cascade River to the Canadian border. Other zones are MN-1, from Duluth to near Two Harbors, and MN-2, from near Two Harbors to the Cascade River.

Currently, two commercial fishermen in MN-3 are permitted a total of 600 lake trout in the spring and 600 in the fall while providing data about the fish to DNR officials. The spring assessment quota of 600 fish would continue, but the fall assessment quota would be rolled into the 3,000 harvest total, Schreiner said.

As bright as the lake trout picture is in Lake Superior, there's a dark side, too. Despite concerted efforts to control lampreys, the ocean invaders still kill about half of all lake trout in Lake Superior, Schreiner said. The federal government leads efforts to control lamprey, primarily by treating their spawning tributaries with chemicals.

Lamprey numbers exploded -- nearly doubling in western Lake Superior -- during the past year. Crews trapped 9,478 lamprey in the Brule River trap in 2005, three times last year's catch and the most ever in the barrier's 20-year history, according to the Wisconsin DNR.