Credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
It's not a complete surprise, given how deeply the coronavirus pandemic has cut into the flow of normal activities in the U.S., but it is important to note: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March suspended its tagging program of salmon and trout raised at state hatcheries around Lake Michigan.
The decision, designed to protect the health of its employees and the public, means very few fish planted in the lake in 2020 will have a unique ID number to help biologists track fish movements, survival, growth and return to creel.
And in another setback to science-based management of the fishery, no USFWS or Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fisheries personnel will be collecting tags or other information from fish caught and registered at traditional fishing tournaments. |
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"Because of the pandemic, we don’t have the opportunity to engage anglers like we normally would," said to Chuck Bronte, senior fish biologist with the Service's Great Lakes Fish Tagging and Recovery Lab in Green Bay. "That’s the really important part, the tag recovery. That’s the business end of it."
Prior to its shutdown in March, the USFWS was able to tag some fish in Illinois, about 188,000 chinook salmon and 61,000 steelhead (rainbow trout), according to Bronte. |
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