It’s a rare dealer that isn’t concerned about the health of local fisheries. After all, we know up to 70% of recreational boats are used for fishing at least some of the time, while more than 40% are exclusively launched to chase fins. So there’s some good news and bad news for anglers in Ohio and Minnesota.
A good news story comes from the Ohio Division of Wildlife and an announcement that in April it will release a big stock of steelhead trout into the Cuyahoga River. You’ll recall the Cuyahoga enters Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland and was once considered a poster child for water pollution. Indeed, the river and Lake Erie were major reasons for the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972. Hard work over the ensuing 50 years has made their recovery remarkable.
Now the Cuyahoga will welcome its first stock of the steelhead, an energetic fish that anglers love to fight. In all, the ODOW will release 450,000 steelhead yearlings into the river, along with five other northern Ohio rivers. According to reports in Cleveland’s daily newsletter “The Wake Up,” the rivers of northern Ohio provide one of the best steelhead fisheries in the country, “maybe in the whole world.”
In Minnesota, a fight is getting underway to save its fisheries from Asian carp. Specifically, invasive silver, bighead, black and grass carp that can destroy local ecosystems by wiping out the food sources of local fish species.
The carp war has actually been a long battle in the nation’s midsection, but it’s now reaching Minnesota. These voracious eaters were first imported from Asia to keep fish-farm ponds in the South clear of vegetation. But they escaped during flooding, got into the Mississippi River and connected rivers, propagated and slowly marched northward. Witness the battle in Illinois to keep carp from reaching Lake Michigan at Chicago, where experts contend they could destroy the $7 billion annual fishery in the Great Lakes.
Until now, the carp have been mostly absent from the upper stretches of the Mississippi. In November and December, however, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported catching 408 carp in the river near Winona, the largest catch so far in Minnesota, and another 83 in mid-February.
Moreover, the DNR is being aggressive in requiring anglers to immediately report the capture of any carp. They should take a photo of the fish and make arrangements to get it to the nearest fisheries office.
In addition, if an angler wishes to keep an invasive carp, he or she must download a special “Permit to Possess Prohibited Invasive Species of Carp.”
The carp also are a direct threat to boaters in general. The fish have a propensity for leaping up to 10 feet in the air when startled by a boat’s engine. While no injuries have been reported in Minnesota, many instances of boaters being hit by leaping carp have been recorded in Illinois and elsewhere.
The DNR is also intensively monitoring all life stages of invasive carp in the Minnesota pools of the Mississippi River, St. Croix River, Minnesota River and the Missouri River watersheds. It’s also an active partner in the Upper Mississippi River Invasive Carp Workgroup, which includes representatives from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and several federal agencies.
Finally, last month DNR released an updated “Invasive Carp Action Plan” for prevention and management efforts in Minnesota. The 10-year plan includes a prioritized set of recommended actions that build upon the DNR’s current invasive carp efforts.
A tip of our collective cap to all who act to expand and protect good fishing. For boat dealers in every state, these actions deserve recognition and support. It’s just good business.
