Great Lakes Fishery Commission

Updated 2024-12-10 23:28:00

Lake Huron -> 2.0 Percid (Walleye and Perch) -> Walleye Yield

2.1.1. Annual lakewide harvest (yield) equal to or greater than 700 thousand kg

Overall yield of Lake Huron Walleyes have made gains in recent decades fueled largely by recovery of the Saginaw Bay stock, the single largest source within the lake. These gains in turn have been made possible principally by the declines and virtual disappearance of Alewives from Lake Huron. Alewives are predators and competitors on newly hatched Percids. Those gains in reproductive success, however have not appeared to drive similar gains in other source populations including those of Georgian Bay and the North Channel. There, most walleye reproductive sources are spread out across various tributaries and embayments. The diverse reproductive sources of individual Walleye in Ontario Waters makes assessment more difficult. There is some consideration that mortality rates may be limiting the expansion and recovery of those Walleye sources. Yield across Lake Huron includes recreational harvest, Provincial-licensed commercial harvest, Native American and Canadian First Nation harvest. There is also measurable by-catch mortality of Walleye in the Michigan state-licensed Yellow Perch Commercial fishery. It is unclear what is required to see gains in yield back to historic levels. It may be that modern population levels are close to historic levels but that overall exploitation rates and fishery intensity is less today than historically. Since Yield is harvest-based, achievement is at least partially dependent on fishing effort and harvest allowances and that more intensive exploitation of the lake’s Walleye populations may not necessarily be desirable and thus current levels reflect a more sustainable level of fisheries. Unquestionably, assessment of the status of populations could benefit from more regular and spatially expansive investment.

Total fishery yield of Walleye in Lake Huron, 1867-2022.