Tribal Gill Nets- Video Link

[SWMuskeye]

I thought you all should see this- looks like we should be losing a lot of egg-laden females this year, this was put together by the Mille Lacs Messenger. For those of you who really didn't understand what gill-netting looks like- this helps paint a picture of what its really like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIqwZ43r6Ik

[ozzie]

JUST PLAIN GROSS!!!!! I BET THOSE BIG ONES MUST REALLY TASTE GREAT!!!! MAKES ME SICK!!!!!

[SWMuskeye]

Agreed,

Makes me sick too! Especially given how difficult this winter was to catch a walleye! The DNR has to do something to save these eggs! I know that this was an odd year and all of the fish still have spawn in them at opener time, but think of how the eggs could've been converted to fingerlings or fry to lessen the blow on the population!

And to think, a guy can't even practice C & R at night after opener for a month, yet the tribes can pillage the fish prior to the spawn! I'm sticking to Minnetonka this year, I can't stand it!

[Snooter]

Yep, agreed. I don't understand, why they let them take so many fish at one time, especially during the spawn. I know, it's probably a can of worms I don't want to open, but still a guy has to wonder why.

My question is (I saw this asked somewhere else, but didn't see the answer), what do they do with all those fish? I see they clean them out and what not, but honestly, that's a ton of fish for just a group of people to eat. Do they save it and live off of it for the whole year? Do they sell it?

[ozzie]

sell it to bars in wisconsin.......and who ever else will buy.....

[walleyes12]

what a joke! Something has to change!

[fsnrod]

They were selling them in .Bemidji last year

[walleyewild]

People that argue gill nets are selective harvest are wrong.

I won't go any farther then that because I don't want to get kicked off the site.

[Kyle Sandberg]

no comment for the sake of keeping my ability to keep posting here...

[jnorm1984]

To be the antagonist....It is illegal for any tribal member in Minnesota to sell the fish for comercial reasons or any profit at all, so if you saw then selling them out of the back of a pickup in Bemidji last year, that was illegal and it should have been reported to law enforcement...And realistaclly they take such a small minute pecentage of the fish it has very little impact on the population. Fifty boats out there on opener will take more than the indians will all season. As far as having someone there to strip the eggs, this may be a good idea, contact your local state represenative I'll sign the petition. This would probably benifit the population more than allowing the eggs to hatch on their own, in the wild waters more than 50% of the eggs won't make it to hatch because they don't get fertilized, or they get eaten, or any other enviromental reason. And of the 50% that make it, 50% of those wont make it to their 2nd year, and 50% of that 50% wont make it to the third year(this is true for stocked fish also), so in a walleyes fourth year, only 1/16 of the corhort make it...(Just some fun facts)Just my two cents, I used to be totally against the netting and spearing myself, take what you want form this.

[DHanson]

How do you figure 50 boats will harvest 120,000 lbs of walleye? That is there quota....120,000 lbs! That is a lot of fish for a very small number of natives actually netting.

[Muskieguy]

 Originally Posted By: jnorm1984

Fifty boats out there on opener will take more than the indians will all season.

Quick little math lesson

122,500 lbs for the Ojibwe bands

307,500 for Anglers.

50 boats x 3 guys in each boat = 150 anglers

150 anglers x 4 walleye limit = 600 fish (assuming they limit out on 18 inch fish)

600 fish x 2lbs average weight per slot fish( which is generous) = 1200 lbs of walleye, not 122,500.

Check your math..

PS.(hope my math is correct ;-) )

[ozzie]

jnorm1984- wow.....is that what you really think....50 boats could do the harvesting that you saw in that video.....really rethink that statement......Good Luck to all on the opener and hopefully you snag a net with 0 fish in it!!!!!!!

[jnorm1984]

Alright, sorry about the 50 boat thing, that is incorrect,I didnt do the math I was just tryin to make a point (typin quickly), Im trying to find the numbers about the Indian Harvest last year, but I am faily certin they did not meet their quota..... If you wanna get into technicalities, check out the hooking mortality numbers form last year, rather staggering, and none of those big pigs got to spawn this year, and generally thats not the indians fault. Just tryin to spread out the blame here fellas

[TrophyEyes]

The sick thing is that most of those big ones were females with eggs still. Why can't they wait until after they spawn? or would that be too sporting? It may be the hardest thing to watch a resource be abused like this.

FYI, I give the same amount of disgust to those that kill deer, fish and other animals unethically. I truly believe this is unethical. Show this to PETA and it will make that euthanized horse look like a joke.

[DHanson]

 Originally Posted By: jnorm1984

Alright, sorry about the 50 boat thing, that is incorrect,I didnt do the math I was just tryin to make a point (typin quickly), Im trying to find the numbers about the Indian Harvest last year, but I am faily certin they did not meet their quota..... If you wanna get into technicalities, check out the hooking mortality numbers form last year, rather staggering, and none of those big pigs got to spawn this year, and generally thats not the indians fault. Just tryin to spread out the blame here fellas

They come very close to their quota every year. This is a big misunderstanding among the general population who are not educated on this issue. I have researched this topic quite a bit and yet they may not reach their full quota, it is very close. Google GLIFWC for a ton of info. Go under Biological services, click reports, and look for Minnesota spearing and netting reports. They got a 45 inch monster northern in 2004. They kept 12 muskies in 2005 and 7 muskies in 2004.

[Early Riser]

I worked on a reservation in far northern MN for about 10 years and took some really nice trips up to some remote reserves in Canada during that time. We lived in Hawaii for about three years and I had some formative experiences during my middle school years seasonally harvesting fish by net and spear with some native Hawaiian friends. That being said I may have a slightly different perspective than many folks here.

A lot of band members that I know effeciently harvest fish in spring and then don't bother fishing the rest of the year. While I don't believe that the opening day angling crowd will kill off nearly as many fish as the spring netting/spearing, I think the argument could be made that the combination of catch and release fishing all summer long, hooking mortality during periodes of temperature extremes, constant tournament pressure, and increasingly effective electronic fishing technology combine to have a far greater negative impact on the fishery. Despite this presumptive fact I haven't heard Indians complain about these trends. They don't really seem to worry about the same things that most people do which is really quite refreshing and different than mainstream culture's instant gratification bent.

It is graphic to see a haul like this but you have to keep in mind that their harvest is concentrated during a short time frame and not spread out over the year.

No doubt these are pre-spawn fish, but as soon as any population of fish are done spawning they become pre-spawn fish again, and a certain percentage of them will be killed off by other means thoughout the season. It ultimately comes down to balancing two different cultural perspectives over a long period of time.

[jnorm1984]

Hanson- so do you think you would catch more fish if they didnt net at all?

[jnorm1984]

Thanks for the bit of support Early Riser

[DHanson]

I suggest you google GLIFWC and do some reading for a while and then come back and tell me what you have learned.

[jnorm1984]

Ive looked at the site, and have looked at the numbers. I just think it has little impact on the sport fishing..They took over 100,000 pounds of fish last year, and mille lacs had some of the best fishing it has had in many years... I guess this would be my key argument...

[DHanson]

We can just agree to disagree then. Good luck fishing this year.

[jnorm1984]

Right on... U too

[MuskieSlayer]

 Originally Posted By: Snooter

...especially during the spawn.

I hear this every year, but the time of the harvest has no impact one way or another on a fishery. From a management standpoint all that matters is that the fish is harvested. It doesn't matter if you harvest a walleye in June, October, February, or April; that fish will never spawn again, period.

You can certainly argue about the ethics of the methods used, but the time of the harvest does not make a difference.

[TrophyEyes]

I completely disagree. Those fish are ready to spawn, there is a huge potential for hundreds of thousands of fish that will never have a chance. All I was saying was why can't they wait an extra 10-15 days until those fish have spawned out. At the very least let the DNR milk them as they are being taken out of the nets. Those eggs/sperm are wasted and the fishery could use them. I just think it is ethically wrong for them not to care one bit and to just through them in a bucket. If I catch a slot fish that is full of eggs next weekend it is going back in the lake as fast as I can release it (as I have done for years). It is not that dissimilar from shooting drakes instead of hens or bucks instead of does. The population can be enhanced with a little matenance of everyone's responsibilities to the lake. I know that I am only my own keeper and I cannot police everyone to do the right thing, but it is worth bringing it up.

[DrJ]

At least there easy to clean with the ELECTRIC knives. DrJ. Pretty sad indead.

[germanshorthairs]

Makes it hard to practice catch and release on that lake! And to think some people actually believe this does not hurt the fishery!

[MuskieSlayer]

 Originally Posted By: TrophyEyes

I completely disagree. Those fish are ready to spawn, there is a huge potential for hundreds of thousands of fish that will never have a chance.

There's a huge potential for hundreds of thousands of fish that will never get a chance, regardless of the time of the netting harvest.

What if the netting occurred in October? All those fish harvested in October would not be in the lake to spawn come April/May. They're removed from the population, gone. It does not matter. I think you're focusing on the visible signs of reproduction, the eggs, and not the means of production, the fish.

Don't get me wrong, there's issues with the practice, but timing is not one of them. If you want catch and release for all females, equivalent to your waterfowl analogy, then that would make a difference because those breeding females would remain in the population. Also, there's an issue with slot protection that netting cannot comply with. However, those are all independent of timing.

[RiverBassGuy]

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[Hills]

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