Despite the best efforts of fisheries biologists, the dynamics of the Great Lakes food web remain elusive. It's interesting that this story never mentions the possible effects of invasive species, including the zebra mussel, on that food web.
Five of the years that failed to hit 30 pounds were in the 1980s; the other three have been since 2000.
To DNR fisheries biologist Paul Peeters of Sturgeon Bay, that may be another sign of a potential problem. Salmon ate themselves into trouble in the 1980s, when nearly twice as many were stocked as today. That set up a baitfish crash and led to bacterial kidney disease in chinooks.
“It took us nearly a decade to recover from that,” Peeters said. “Do we want to learn from our past or make the same mistakes and put in too many fish?”
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/sports/archive/sports_22065761.shtml
Posted by Dave at August 4, 2005 09:15 AM