Charlie Henriksen says that research conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the Wisconsin Commercial Fisheries Association shows a boom in the whitefish population in a local waterway. Henriksen says whitefish are proving uniquely adaptable to changes in the ecosystem of the Bay of Green Bay. They are appearing in shallow rivers at the head of the bay once thought much too warm for them.

The composition study, which points to a surplus of upwards of one million pounds of whitefish that could be sustainably harvested each year, was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant program. It is a long process in appealing to the Department of Natural Resources to raise their quota. Henriksen says the Commercial Fisheries Association has proposed a compromise until their study can be validated, upping the whitefish harvest by 200,000 pounds next year split between commercial and sport fisheries.

Henriksen is thankful to the graduate student monitors who have aided their research. He says finding those willing to put in hard work was more difficult than obtaining the funding. Henriksen thinks the students have learned from the crew, and the fishermen have picked up a new perspective from their academic counterparts. In the end, he hopes that has created an accurate picture of conditions locally. By comparison, the research shows no surplus with harvest rates on Lake Michigan equal to what is sustainable.

*Photo courtesy of Henriksen Fisheries Facebook page.