Articles : Saving the Muskie…Or Postponing the End?

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Saving the Muskie…Or Postponing the End?
A Call Out for Research
By: Steven James Rusteberg

As we get closer to the millennium people are looking for quicker answers to their problems. If society has a problem with handguns, we can just propose the legislation to ban them. If car emissions are causing the “Greenhouse Effect” we raise emissions standards and pass a law to put smaller engines in utility vehicles. And if our groundwater is polluted and undrinkable we can always ship in bottled water from some mountain spring or cleaner aquifer in a less populated area. These problems focus on quick solutions to more complex problems. The same can be said about what we are doing with our Illinois muskie fisheries.

In order to sustain a healthy muskie fishery, we tend to reach for the easy solution to fish populations. A likely solution to a fishery that can’t sustain itself is to assist that body of water with stocking. Sounds logical?!! It appears as if stocking would be an easy solution to the problem of absent natural reproduction. However, once again we jump to the conclusion that this is the easiest way (or only way) of solving the problem and finding a solution.

Stocking muskie into lakes is the “quick fix” for larger problem in Illinois waterways. If a fish can’t naturally reproduce on it’s own; stocking is only a short-term solution to a much bigger problem. By stocking fish into Illinois waters we create a “put and take” fishery. Stocking becomes an annual event in order to maintain a healthy population. That population subsidization gets more expensive as time goes on. Every year, money must be found to populate a lake with a species that can’t maintain itself. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources will claim that natural reproduction doesn’t take place on it’s own in our waters (or is very inefficient). What the IDNR is not focusing on is “how it can take place on it’s own” in our waters. It seems that a more cost-effective solution would involve helping the species reproduce naturally so that the muskie may maintain itself. Stocking is only a short-term answer. Habitat creation and restoration is a long-term solution to our muskellunge problem.

We must begin by studding the fish itself. We need to know when it attempts to spawn, how it spawns, and where it spawns. We have never attempted to research the natural reproduction of the muskellunge in Illinois. There has been no “official research study” of the fishes success or failure in our state. We are aware that anglers are fairly successful at boating these elusive fish, however, our guess to how many muskies inhabit a lake is only as good as our stocking records. These records don’t take into consideration preditation, angling mortality, or even life span of the fish. Any speculation or hypothesis can’t be accepted as fact. Did you realize that we do not have any population estimates on the fish success? We have no population estimates on any of our Illinois lakes, and no hard core evidence that they don’t successfully spawn. This is a scary thought for a biologist who is trying to properly balance an ecosystem. If we don’t know how many are out there… how do we know how many to stock… and if reproduction is successful (or not) how does this play into how many we put into our lakes. Basically our DNR is playing a guessing game and we are letting them take this unsatisfactory approach. We know what we have stocked, but as to the stocking success we are clueless. We are funding the demise of the species we love to cast for and possibly other species in which it feeds on. Research must be organized and funded on a lake -by -lake basis in Illinois to ensure the species future and success.

To me, stocking muskellunge before proper research is completed is not a safe way to manage any ecosystem. I am not suggesting that we do not stock fish, but recommending cutting back on the supplemental stocking until a safe and knowledgeable plan is put into effect. This seems to be a logical step to me. We can stock muskellunge in smaller numbers to ensure proper management, until the necessary research studies are completed. We are long past due for this muskellunge research in Illinois.

I respect the opinion of Ray Thomson (contributing editor of Outdoor Notebook). He suggests we would not have muskellunge in Illinois if we had waited for the proper research to come along. He is right. But can you imagine how many fewer cases of lung cancer we would have in the world if studies on the dangers of cigarette use became public sooner. Proper muskellunge management can not wait until a disaster; it must be studied now in order to protect the species and the surrounding ecology. Mr. Thomson we do have a healthy population of muskellunge in Illinois, and it is time we manage that population better than we have in the past. It is time to take a look at the new research being done on muskellunge genetics and decide which line will give us the best results in Illinois waters. I will not except the argument that experimentation and opinion is better than hard-core scientific data for the future of our fisheries. I will not except this, and I would not expect a serious muskie fisherman or ecologist too either.
This is by no way a personal attack on Mr. Thomson. If it weren’t for this man we would not have muskellunge in Illinois. He was a frontiersman on the forefront of early stockings and education in Illinois. He was a liaison between the DNR and the fisherman in the early days of muskie stocking. However, yesterday’s methods are not applicable to today’s knowledge level. In other words… we have come a long way in over 20 years of muskellunge management and it is time to manage for the millennium. The future and success of this species depends on guys like you doing the right thing… supporting muskellunge research over arbitrary stockings in our state.

On some lakes natural reproduction may not be possible without human assistance. Due to fluctuation in water level, insufficient spawning habitat, preditation on egg masses, or other environmental causes spawning may be near impossible for the species. Research on the subject could pose solutions to this problem. Imagine an artificial spawning habitat that attracts ripe muskellunge. This habitat floats just below the water surface regardless of water level fluctuation. It is black mesh and the heat of the sun on the black surface helps incubate eggs. The mesh lets the muskie in, and keeps the predators out. Is it possible… sure is with a little ingenuity and scientific data. Lake ecosystems (even in today’s day and age) can support a natural reproductive sight on their own with a little help from man. These areas can be managed and protected to become successful spawning habitat. Let a scientist find the way and the DNR manage the solution.

By stocking muskellunge we are just postponing the end of the species in our waters. Sooner or later muskellunge management will take a back seat to something more important in the ecosystem. Stocking muskies in Illinois down the road may not be possible. Money may run out. The species may not be profitable to the Illinois political system. After all, there are more Bass fisherman than muskie enthusiast in the world. Our place in the system is just a small niche, in the giant angling corner of the world. Without more study on the reproductive cycles (and how to improve them) a muskies future in Illinois may look bleak. It may not happen in your lifetime or mine, but sooner or later it will. Muskies may be profitable to Illinois now, but this does not ensure that the state will always have them swimming in its waters. The DNR is already considering taking away three of our muskie rearing ponds due only one year of success (one year in not annual consistency) at the Jake Wolf Hatchery, and replacing them with another species.

Why would the state stop stocking muskie? Muskie has proven to be a very difficult fish to rear in state ponds (despite this year’s surplus). They are very susceptible to disease and perdition. Muskie rearing in Illinois has not proven to be as profitable as expected, and several obstacles have to be overcome to keep production up and mortality down. Several times we have drawn on a muskie surpluses from other states because the success ratio in our own has been very poor. Furthermore, our tiger muskie program has been put on a three-year moratorium, because the state has failed to read or implement data published by scientists. Scientists have proven that tiger muskie must be raised on a minnow biased diet (also more expensive) in order to survive in the wild. Yet, Illinois has raised most of the tiger muskie in the state on a pellet diet, and are wondering why they have done so poorly (read the data gentlemen and do the scientific work necessary… don’t give up). Any of these reasons is why we should fear the future existence of the species in Illinois waters. No more tigers… no more natural muskie… it is that simple! Ask Springfield where the money for the tiger muskie program went now that it is not being used for stocking and research. Did they put it back into some muskie-related project?

Let us force Illinois to concentrate more on muskie research brought about by fact… not speculation. Let us reinstate the tiger muskellunge program, yet, stock smarter this time. We should also be concentrating on research not just stocking management. We need population studies on each lake, after all, muskie are the top of the food chain. There is no way to balance the bottom of the food chain without knowing how many of any species are at the top. Let the scientists find a better way of managing money allocated toward stocking. Let’s make Springfield (DNR Headquarters) think about a muskie naturally reproducing in Illinois rather than having this “put and take fishery” in which we have created. Simply stocking Illinois waters without doing the proper management and research is no longer an acceptable thing to do. It never was! There are better ways to manage our fisheries for the future, and it is time we took the action to overcome our past ignorance.