Inland Fisheries Climate Change

Resource Analysis / Walleye Study

Taking measurements of ogaa (walleye) during spring spearing season

The Climate Change Program’s ogaa (walleye) projects are studying Ceded Territory lakes with declining ogaa populations to assess how the changing climate might be contributing to low fish numbers. The goal is to develop a long-term monitoring plan for climate-related impacts and identify Ceded Territory waters where these impacts could be jeopardizing native ogaa populations.

During the autumn 2016 and spring 2017 seasons the Climate Change Inland Fisheries Biologist, along with other GLIFWC Inland Fisheries staff, studied the downward population trend of ogaa in Lac Vieux Desert lake. The project included spring and fall assessments and looked at the abundance of LVD’s adult and age-0 ogaa, comparing these numbers to those of previous years. The LVD project was done in collaboration with the Lac Vieux Desert and Mole Lake tribes along with the Michigan and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources.

This summer GLIFWC participated in a multi-agency effort led by the Wisconsin DNR focused on lake characteristics and ogaa population dynamics. The study uses a comparative experimental design with the goal of understanding why natural ogaa recruitment in some Ceded Territory lakes is stable but declining in others. As a collaborating agency, GLIWFC collects field data and providing data analysis.

Another project seeks to make information publically available, through GLIFWC’s website, on the probability that lakes will support ogaa in the future. Ogaa is also a chosen species in GLIFWC’s vulnerability assessment.

To read more about GLIFWC’s walleye studies and how climate change may be affecting treaty resources in inland lakes, go to Mazina’igan, GLIFWC’s quarterly newspaper:

“An uncertain future for Lac Vieux Desert’s walleye fishery” http://glifwc.org/Mazinaigan/Summer2017/flipbook/index.html?page=10