Wisconsin Conservation Congress Warm Water Committee

My name is Rand Atkinson, and I have spent fifty years working as a fish and aquatic biologist in Wisconsin. I previously served on this congress and was a representative during the development of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ first walleye plan in 1998. Currently, I represent the Walleye Restoration Foundation, Inc., an organization dedicated to addressing the decline of Wisconsin’s fisheries. Our primary focus is on walleye populations in the Northwoods, a species that has been cultured for more than a century and intensively studied and managed since the Voight Decision in the 1990s.Today, I wish to address two citizen resolutions.

Resolution #090125, which concerns the idea of “year-round catch and release for all species except muskellunge.” There is an element of irony in the resolution’s title, as the author refers to catch-and-release practices for game fish rather than for all species. Over the past thirty years, fishing regulations have already reduced the harvest of both game fish and panfish. This resolution aims to clarify a gray area for law enforcement and anglers but may risk creating a broad new law that does not consider the ecology of the complex predator- prey relationship that can change from waterway to waterway that determines growth of both game and panfish. We have the last 30 years reduced all game fish take by increasing size limit, decreasing bag limit, and creating … as in walleye “protective slot limits” … that have NOT improved the fisheries. It has only created an angler culture of TROPHY FISHING for all game fish species and taken away the food connection of eating fish that you catch.

Resolution # 440225, attempts “to reduce panfish limits on the Three Lakes Chain of Lakes”. Again, we have created panfish regulations over the last 30 years that reduce the take of all these species from 50 to 25 and now wish to consider management proposals, with the proposed new WDNR fish panfish tool box, are looking for further reduce panfish take to 10 fish. Again, our fish management is moving to an angler culture of where CATCH AND RELEASE is common practice. Even children that we are trying to keep in touch with our natural resources when we teach them how to fish and view panfish not as a meal but as a creature we should not harm. Perhaps, fish management should be asking why panfish are congregating is specific areas of flowages … could oxygen and temperatures under the ice created by the operation of the dam? Is the dam restricting the movement of other forage minnow species, such as suckers that often spawn in rivers?

Our fisheries and waters that support them in Wisconsin are in trouble. More lakes and waterways every year are experiencing blue green algae blooms … even pristine aquatic ecosystems .We may blame climate change, shoreline development, water quality, or all … but the answer is solving all is understanding and acting. We now have new tools of AI (artificial intelligence) to analyze fisheries and water resources data we have collected for the last 100 years. We can manage our fisheries, so all fish grow well AND improve water quality. This is the importance in understanding nutrients in our aquatic ecosystems and channeling them up through the food chain and harvesting fish again. Please consider visiting our web page to understand what we are all about.