In a protracted and
hard-fought campaign that spanned years, yellow perch anglers
achieved an historic agreement that will effectively close the
placing of commercial trap net gear over a 130-square mile swath of
Lake Erie off Lake County.
This agreement –
voluntary but still embedded in strong intent – was inked between
Lake County sport anglers, the two commercial trap net fishermen who
are the most inclined to commercially fish the region, and the Ohio
Division of Wildlife.
Under the
three-year agreement - retro-active to the 2017 commercial fishing
season - the trap netters will be prohibited to set gear using these
officially accepted dimensions: “The eastern border of this closed
zoned (sic) is four nautical miles east of the Fairport Harbor (West
Breakwater) lighthouse running due north and south the northern
border is eight miles from (the) Fairport Harbor (West Breakwater)
lighthouse and runs due east and west, the southern border is the
shoreline combined with grids 913’s northern boundary, and the
western border is defined by the western boundaries of the commercial
grids 713 and 813.”
In practical effect,
the new off-limits trap net unit will begin just west of the Chagrin
River near Willowick, east to the now defunct Rayon production plant
in Perry Township and importantly, north of the prized sport and
commercial fishing grounds known locally as the “Hump.”
Previously, the trap
netting exclusionary zone was a four-mile arc pivoting from the mouth
of the Grand River at Fairport Harbor.
Though the Wildlife
Division preferred that the delineation be an arc, backers of the
movement said a square is much easier for anglers to understand when
using their GPS nits.
Conflicts over use
of the Hump – which was roughly divided in half by two of the
Wildlife Division’s Lake Erie fisheries management units – arose
between commercial and recreational interests. These included access
to the area’s stock of adult fish as well as any potential harm
that the setting of nets might do on spawning or breeding-staging
adult yellow perch.
Ensuring
recreational angling access only would exist for the Hump was a
primary focus of a local ad hoc committee that worked the political
spectrum, lobbied the Wildlife Division and engaged area fishing
clubs and individual anglers.
“Everyone will
benefit from the commercial fishermen to the sport fishermen to the
yellow perch,” said Don Schonauer. “Hopefully the little perch
will grow and the bigger ones will spawn.”
Schonauer is widely
regarded as the spear point of the angler-driven campaign committee
that consisted on-and-off of about 50 individuals. He unveiled the
project and the group’s achievement at a December 21st
meeting held at River Bend Marina in Fairport Harbor and attended by
about 75 to 100 people.
Schonauer said as
well that anglers may seen positive results as quickly as next year.
However, the document’s full impact very well may take several
years to bear fully mature fruit, Schonauer said.
“I want everyone
to remember, it was not the netters’ fault; they were doing only
what the law allowed,” Schonauer said as well. “But when yellow
perch fishing is good that helps everyone in the business. If you
don’t have perch than you’re hurting and I should know; I ran a
bait store.”
Though while
Schonauer may be a gifted Lake Erie angler himself, a small
businessman and a presidential-award-winning retired school
administrator, he readily admits he’s neither a politician nor a
lobbyist. But he is a quick learner and that included tapping into
those elected officials who know their way around the hallways and
offices of state government.
“As a businessman
I do not want to see anyone lose their job but things must be fair
and balanced,” said Ohio State Representative Ronald Young.
“Clearly that had not been the case here.”
Young, said
Schonauer at the public forum, was instrumental in successfully
navigating the agreement package through the labyrinth of state
government bureaucracy, political indifference, and general
government foot-dragging.
“I believe that
this agreement is historic; it’s simply never been done before,”
Young said.
Then again, Young
still carried a big stick as he talked softy to the Kasich
Administration and officials with the Wildlife Division. That axe
handle comes in the form of his House Bill 356 which would impose
some serious and new restrictions on commercial fishing off both
Fairport Harbor as well as Sandusky – the bread and butter region
for the state’s small commercial fishing fleet.
Should the agreement
collapse, said Young, it would take almost nothing to revive his
legislative proposal.
“This cycle of
closing or restricting one management unit and opening another and
then reversing that has to stop,” Young said. “Something ought to
be done on a lakewide basis, too.”
Heavily assisting
also in the project was local businessman and Lake County Board of
County Commissioners President Jerry Cirino who more than one year
ago pledged his support to Schonauer.
A hard-nosed
negotiator himself, Cirino tramped the halls of state government in
Columbus and then stalked the offices of leaders with the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources at the agency’s Columbus campus.
Cirino cautioned
that as a voluntary agreement its points are “fragile” but that
officials with the Wildlife Division and the commercial fishing
community came around to a package “that is as good as it can
possibly be” for yellow perch anglers.
“Sport anglers
were at a terrible and serious disadvantage, and it took a while for
the Wildlife Division to recognize this, but it is now aboard with
the idea,” said Cirino.
Cirino then added
with a wink a moment latter: “We can make yellow perch fishing in
Lake County great again.”
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
