Walleye Numbers Dwindling

All the talk for the last several weeks has been about the fantastic weather we have been having and the fact that the walleye spawn and migration has begun several weeks early.

Limit catches of walleye are being taken on Lake Erie reefs off Magee Marsh to Toledo. Every fishing report I read is trumpeting the huge catches of walleye being taken. It is great news to hear the fishermen are finally getting a break and most are getting their daily limits.

If todays news is correct the happy days might be short lived. The headline in tonights Sandusky Register is “Fewer Walleye in Lake”. The current estimate of walleye in Lake Erie is 25 to 30 million. Sounds like a lot of fish and it is however it is a 70% decline from what it was just seven years ago.

So what happened to all those fish. A spokesman for the Ohio Division of Wildlife says it’s all about the annual fish hatch. Each year the Wildlife folks do a survey to determine how the hatch was for that year. Well the hatch has been dwindling annually.

The reason for the reduced fish hatch is complex but the Wildlife folks say it is all up to mother nature. A cold spring produces a poor hatch but a strong winter ice cover will produce a good hatch. This past year we had nearly zero ice cover but a warm spring. so do those two cancel each other out?

Another factor that will play a big influence on the hatch for the upcoming years is the algae bloom. The claim is that farm runoff and cities pumping sewage overflow into the lake are the cause of the algae. The problem is there is no quick fix for these problems. The farmers don’t have a fix for the runoff and the cities can’t afford bigger more complex water treatment plants.

Estimates are that Lake Erie sport fishing produces revenues of nearly a billion dollars annually. The state, cities and counties can’t afford to lose those dollars yet they have been unable to come up with a solution for the algae problem. Cities can’t afford it and farmers don’t know how to stop the fertilizer runoff from their fields.

It seems this is a problem that isn’t going away any time soon. The danger signs are there in the annual fish hatch numbers. The problems that face the walleye are shared by all the game fish in Lake Erie. If the fish numbers continue to dwindle a thriving industry will come to a halt. Complacency won’t solve this problem. Sound research and cooperation across political lines and yes international lines will be needed to solve the problem.