Chapter 10 Harvest and Exploitation PATRICK J. SCHMALZ , ANDREW H. FAYRAM , DANIEL A. IS ERMANN , STEVEN P. NEWMAN , AND CLAYTON J. EDWARD S 10.1 INTRODUCTION From the time that the first peoples of North America developed the means to harvest fish, walleye and sauger have been sought after as both a source of food and for recreation. In this chapter we outline the development and current status of aboriginal, commercial, and recreational walleye and sauger fisheries in North America. In addition, we describe how ex- ploitation is managed within each of these fisheries, and summarize current research related to walleye and sauger exploitation in North America. 10.2 ABORIGINAL FISHERIES OF WALLEYE AND SAUGER 10.2.1 Development of Fisheries It is difficult to determine when aboriginal North Americans began to use walleye and sauger for subsistence. Instead, we must rely on archeological evidence to establish time periods when fishing occurred within the geographic range of walleye and sauger and then assume that some of the fish being harvested during that period were walleye and sauger. Archaeological evidence suggests that by as early as 3000 B.C. aboriginal North Americans in the Great Lakes region had already developed several types of fishing gear for use in the upper Great Lakes, including spears, gaffs, hook and line, and weirs. In the lower Great Lakes, nets may have been used for fishing as early as 2500 B.C. but were not used until sometime between 300 and 200 B.C. in the upper lakes (Bogue 2000). Some of the more detailed accounts of aboriginal fishing, including fishing methods and species caught, were made by European explorers of North America. In 1695 French explor- ers documented a settlement of Ottawa Indians on Lake Huron who were fishing with nets and appeared to have chosen the site due to the abundance of fish, including walleyes (Kinietz 1940). In addition, Bogue (2000) quoted journal writings of an early explorer who reportedly witnessed torchlight spearing (though not explicitly stated as fishing for walleyes or saugers) in the Fox River of Green Bay during the 1840s. Rogers (1972) noted that before 1830 the Ojibwa of northwestern Ontario used gill nets and hook-and-line techniques in early summer 375 376 Chapter 10 to fish for walleyes and other species, but as big game became increasingly scarce, fishing became a year-round activity and the tribal members began to use spears, fish traps, and weirs. Rostlund (1952) published a detailed evaluation of freshwater fish use by aboriginal North Americans. Approximately 24 aboriginal tribes inhabited locations within the native range of walleye and sauger, but only those in the Great Lakes and central Canada appeared to rely substantially on fish for food. Tanner (1987) also stated that tribes of the northern Great Lakes, particularly the Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Hurons, relied historically on fish as a primary source of food. The effect of subsistence fishing that occurred before European colonization is difficult to determine. However, there are several reasons to believe that populations were not overfished. Aboriginal North American population density was low with respect to the distribution of fish resources (Nielsen 1999; Bogue 2000). People did not have the means to transport or store large quantities of fish, thereby making large harvest impractical (Bogue 2000). Aboriginal North Americans often attached religious or spiritual importance to fish; these beliefs may have prevented overharvest of fish resources (Nielsen 1999; Bogue 2000). Other indirect evi- dence that aboriginal North Americans did not overharvest fish populations are the many ac- counts made by early European explorers describing large numbers of fish and the presence of very large individual fish (Kinietz 1940; Bogue 2000). 10.2.2 Present Aboriginal Walleye and Sauger Fisheries 10.2.2.1 Harvest Rights of Current Aboriginal North Americans Aboriginal walleye and sauger fisheries currently exist in a number of states and prov- inces in the United States and Canada. Tribal harvest occurs within established reservation boundaries and in many areas outside of these boundaries such as in waters that are part of land areas ceded by aboriginal people but where rights to fish were retained. For example, in the United States, off-reservation rights to fish were retained in treaties signed by several tribes and the U.S. Government, and upheld in subsequent litigation (Busiahn 1989; BIA 1991). Specifically, the treaties of 1836, 1837, 1842, and 1854 reserved the rights of some aboriginal tribes to harvest walleyes and other fish in areas of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Min- nesota. Subsequent treaties or state rulings lead some to believe the tribes no longer retained rights to harvest walleyes and other fish; however, these rights have been upheld in federal court several times since the 1980s (Busiahn 1989; BIA 1991; WDNR 1997; GLIFWC 2007). Since the court cases have been settled in Wisconsin and Minnesota and a “Consent Decree” has been negotiated and agreed to in Michigan, off-reservation tribal harvest has occurred. In Canada, the right to harvest walleyes, saugers, and other fish by aboriginal people is held above those of nonaboriginal Canadians, and may be based on treaties, Natural Resource Transfer Agreements in the Prairie Provinces, aboriginal title, and contemporary agreements (Notzke 1994). Beginning in the late 1700s and continuing into the 1900s numerous treaties were signed with tribes that included rights to fish across Canada covering areas varying in geographic range. For example, 36 treaties were negotiated in Ontario between 1763 and 1929 (Hansen 1991; Notzke 1994). The Natural Resource Transfer Agreements of 1929 that conveyed the ownership of natural resources from the federal government to the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba included aboriginal fishing rights and made them province-wide (Notzke 1994). Similar to the United States, the degree to which off-reserva- Harvest and Exploitation 377 tion fishing rights were protected from provincial and federal law was challenged on several occasions (Hansen 1991; Notzke 1994). Finally, in 1982, the Constitution Act recognized and affirmed the rights of all aboriginal peoples of Canada, thus protecting their rights to fish in the Canadian Constitution (Ashcroft et al. 2006). Further, in 1985, section 88 of the Indian Act clarified that treaty-protected fishing rights could not be affected by provincial legisla- tion (Notzke 1994). Supreme Court decisions since 1990 have further clarified the rights of aboriginal peoples protected by the Canadian Constitution, but the application of these rights to Métis—individuals of mixed European and aboriginal heritage—is still evolving (Tough 1996; Ashcroft et al. 2006). 10.2.2.2 Methods and Levels of Current Aboriginal Walleye and Sauger Harvest The primary harvest methods employed in aboriginal North American walleye and sauger fisheries are spearing and gill-netting, although other methods such as hook and line, bow fishing, and trap-netting are also used. In Michigan, gill-netting is prohibited while trap-net- ting and seining are permitted. In Wisconsin, spearing, fyke-netting, and gill-netting are all permitted within certain guidelines. In Minnesota, gill-netting and spearing are the most com- mon methods used for walleye harvest, but hook-and-line angling, fyke-netting, and set-lining are all permitted under certain conditions. In Canada, gill-netting and hook-and-line angling are the primary methods for taking fish. Approximately 400 spearers from six Wisconsin Chippewa tribes participate in tribal harvest each year in the spring in relatively small lakes in the area of Michigan and Wisconsin ceded in the Treaties of 1837 and 1842 (USDOI 2007), and tribal members harvest approximately 31,000 walleyes annually during the spring spear fishery in about 200 lakes (Krueger 2008). The fishery in these lakes generally takes place from March to April and involves a total of 2,000 nights of spearing effort (Krueger 2008). A similar number of participants harvest a similar number of walleyes from a single large lake in Minnesota. Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota is 53,650 ha and supports an annual tribal gill- net and spear harvest of approximately 31,000 walleyes (36,750 kg, Milroy et al. 2007). The fishery in Mille Lacs Lake generally takes place in the spring from the middle of March to the middle of May with a small amount of harvest occurring in the fall from October through No- vember. Tribal fishers harvested between 2,770 and 4,180 kg/year of walleyes during 1994– 1998 from Michigan waters of the Great Lakes (Table 10.1; Summerfelt 2005). The extent of subsistence walleye and sauger harvest across much of Canada is largely unknown (Ashcroft et al. 2006) because these fisheries are self-regulated (Berkes 1979, 1989). Despite being unregulated or self-regulated, subsistence fisheries in Canada are important because some level of subsistence fishing probably occurs in most aboriginal communities, particularly in northern Canada (Berkes 1979, 1989; Hopper and Power 1991). Studies of local subsistence harvest in Canada have generally focused on specific bands or communities over short time periods. These studies have typically relied on oral interviews and surveys to estimate harvest. For example, the Webequie community of Ojibwa in northern Ontario harvested an estimated 17,420 walleyes weighing 15,150 kg for subsistence purposes during 1987–1988 (Hopper and Power 1991). An estimated 21,528 walleyes were harvested for subsistence purposes by approximately 6,500 aboriginal residents in eight communities of the Mushkegowuk Region in the Hudson Bay and James Bay areas in Ontario in 1990 (Berkes et al. 1994). Ten aborigi- nal communities across Manitoba were surveyed in 1984 regarding wildlife harvest (Wagner 1986). The number of fish harvested the previous year ranged from 270 to 34,500 per com- 378 Chapter 10 Table 10.1.