Reconciling Fisheries with Conservation: The Laurentian Great Lakes Case Study

摘要

The fish communities in the Laurentian Great Lakes have been dramatically altered through overfishing, habitat destruction, contaminants, and invasive species, specifically the alewife Alosapseudoharengus and the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus. By themid-20th century, populations of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush, lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis, and burbot Lota lota were decimated, multiple species of deepwater ciscoes Coregonus spp. had become extinct, and the invasive alewife comprised thebulk of the remaining biomass. Commercial, recreational, and tribal fisheries had collapsed. With significant reductions in contaminant and nutrient loading, stream restoration, and a successful sea lamprey control program came opportunities for rehabilitation. Cooperatively, federal, provincial, and state fisheries management agencies initiated stocking programs to restore native species and to introduce Pacific salmonids Oncorhynchusspp. as a biocontrol for alewife, as well as for recreational angling. Lake Superior and the warmwater communities in Lake Erie have been rehabilitated. Lake whitefish and burbot populations have increased throughout Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron; self-sustaining lake trout populations are becoming established in Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. Nevertheless, the rehabilitation of lake trout populations in Lakes Erie, Michigan, and Ontario has been unsuccessful. Recent invasions by dreissinid mussels, large zooplankton species, and round gobies Neogobius melanostomus have greatly altered lower trophic levels. During the rehabilitation process, commercial, recreational, and tribal harvests have continued to be economically viable. In this paper, we describe a consensus-building process surrounding the nature of decisionmaking within the context of fishery management, the science-based rationale for stocking and harvest, and the "lessons learned" from the application of these processes.