Great Lakes Fishery Commission

Updated 2024-12-10 23:41:50

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

2.1.2. Annual yield in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, equal to or greater than 0.48 million kg

Current yield is not commensurate with historical yield but the population is meeting recovery targets. Likely the current recreational yield and associated exploitation rate is not as great as the historic commercial exploitation rate. The Saginaw Bay population of Walleyes is believed to support multiple fisheries throughout Lake Huron, Previous telemetry studies documented that 37% of Walleyes spawning in Saginaw Bay make migrations into the main basin of Lake Huron beginning by late May or early June and then return in the fall to overwinter in the bay. These migrating Walleye are believed to also drive or supply recreational fisheries up and down the coast of the Michigan waters of the lake as well as tribal harvest in the 1836 Treaty waters in Northern Lake Huron and commercial fisheries that operate in the southern main basin of the Ontario waters of the lake. The yield depicted here is limited to the recreational yield within the bay only and the commercial bycatch mortality of Walleye in the state-licensed fishery that operates there. Walleye are not permitted for commercial harvest but a previous study indicated that 43% of by caught Walleye exhibit mortality so that biomass can be cast as an additional within bay form of yield that the population is supporting. There are estimates of total yield from all fisheries affecting the Saginaw Bay population based on a Statistical-catch-at-age model but the historical yield values for Saginaw Bay were limited to those fisheries within the geographic extent of the bay and limiting this expression of yield to within bay fisheries, the most direct comparison is created. There are other Walleye population and fishery metrics that are important aside from yield but yield remains one of the only long term statistics to which to compare to for the pre-collapsed period. 

Annual fishery yield of Walleye in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, 1885-2022.