Major Perch Research Effort Launched
By Stephen Wittman
MADISON, Wis. (03/26/98) — Lake Michigan’s declining yellow perch fishery is the focus of a unique, multi-state research effort jointly funded by the Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant programs.
Wisconsin Sea Grant is supporting two projects that will examine perch recruitment mechanisms, including evaluations of environmental factors and predation, and the interactions among perch growth, health and vulnerability to predation. Michigan Sea Grant is funding a study examining the hypothesis that starvation is the cause, while the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant projects will focus on the alewife predation hypothesis and weather-related factors.
More than two dozen scientists from the states around Lake Michigan and beyond met Feb. 28-March 1 in Milwaukee to plan and coordinate this summer’s field research. The gathering included most members of the multi-state Yellow Perch Task Group, which last year identified the research needs these projects will address.
"This is the first time in a long time that we’ve seen such a large, cooperative university research effort focused on a Great Lakes problem," UW Sea Grant Director Anders W. Andren told the gathering. "This is what Sea Grant is all about, and I hope we can continue and build on this spirit of collaboration."
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Director Philip E. Pope echoed Andren’s comments, describing it as "a superb opportunity…We look forward to great results."
More than $375,000 is budgeted for the first year of research, with the projects continuing for two to four years.
Principal investigators include UW Sea Grant fisheries specialist Clifford Kraft, UW-Green Bay; Fred Binkowski, UW-Milwaukee; Brian Belonger, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Thomas Miller, University of Maryland; James Rice, North Carolina State University; Larry Crowder, Duke University; David Jude, University of Michigan; John Jansen, Loyola University; and Doran Mason, Purdue University.
For More Information:
See also:
Perch Research:
Phase One Complete (10/6/97)
UW Sea Grant
Researchers Tackle Perch Problem (8/20/97)
Where Have All
the Yellow Perch Gone? (4/16/97)
Created in 1966, Sea Grant is a national network of 29 university-based programs of research, education and outreach dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of the United States' coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources. The National Sea Grant Network is a partnership of coastal states, private industry and the National Sea Grant College Program , National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce . The University of Wisconsin Sea Grant College Program is administered by the Sea Grant Institute on the UW-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin.
posted 3/26/98 by wittman
last revised 29 March 2000 by Karl
all contents copyright 1997 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/news_releases/perch_research.htm
