People of the Sturgeon Oral History Collection
People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin’s Love Affair with an Ancient Fish is a tale of the cultural and scientific history of an iconic Wisconsin fish, the lake sturgeon. Throughout the process of writing the book, the authors interviewed community activists, sturgeon spearing enthusiasts, spear and decoy craftsmen, and scientific researchers associated with the Lake Winnebago sturgeon population. Because of the cultural, social, economic, and scientific knowledge captured in these interviews, the decision was made to preserve the audio files as a collection of oral histories. This collection, People of the Sturgeon, encapsulates perspectives on lake sturgeon as they are reflected in the book. People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin’s Love Affair with an Ancient Fish published by Wisconsin Historical Society Press, Madison, WI. Audio courtesy of the Oshkosh Public Museum. Audio rights to Oshkosh Public Museum and UW Board of Regents.
North Shore Commercial Fishing oral history interviews, 1977
An oral history collection of interviews with North Shore commercial fishermen (interviews available online). This project produced by Archives and Special Collections, Kathryn A. Martin Library, University of Minnesota Duluth in collaboration with the North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum. Collection is described by the Kathryn A. Martin Library as follows: The North Shore Commercial Fishing Oral History Project, undertaken in 1977, intended to capture first-hand knowledge of commercial fishing. Narrators were individuals who themselves, or whose families, engaged in commercial fishing on Lake Superior’s North Shore from Knife River and Two Harbors in Lake county to Schroeder and Tofte in Cook county as well as Isle Royale, Michigan an island off the north shore of Lake Superior. The interviewer/project director was historian Barbara W. Sommer. The interviews in this project document the history of commercial fishing on Lake Superior’s North Shore. The ten participants, interviewed by Barbara Sommer, were individuals who themselves, or whose families, engaged in commercial fishing. Topics of the interviews included fishing industry finance, women in the industry, fishing equipment, boat building, weather’s effect on Great Lakes fishing, clothing, health care, the Great Depression, children, and the history of individual fishing businesses. The collection contains audiorecordings of the interviews, transcripts, and a subject guide to the transcripts. There is also a brief biographical statement for each participant. These interviews have been digitized and are available, with the transcripts, from Minnesota Reflections. North Shore Commercial Fishing Oral History Project interviews Participants, Home Locations, and Interview Dates: Aleck Christiansen, Two Harbors, Minnesota, June 22, 1977 Ingeborg Holte, Grand Marais, Minnesota, July 6, 1977 Edwin C. “Steve” Johnson, Duluth, Minnesota, June 22, 1977 Milford Johnson Jr., Two Harbors, Minnesota, July 14, 1977 Conrad Lorntson, Two Harbors, Minnesota, June 29, 1977 Hjalmer Louis Mattson, Duluth, Minnesota, July 11, 1977 Roy Bernard Oberg, Grand Portage, Minnesota, July 30, 1977 Ragnvald Sve, Two Harbors, Minnesota, July 15, 1977 George Torgersen, Knife River, Minnesota, June 27, 1977 Chris Tormondsen, Tofte, Minnesota, July 29, 1977
Agencies investigating whitefish decline in the Great Lakes
Story by Morgan Springer (published 8.27.18, Interlochen Public Radio, read and listen to full story ): Lake whitefish are the most important commercial fish species in Michigan. But in the last decade, state biologists say fishers are harvesting about a third of what they used to get. The catch dropped to 1.7 million pounds last year, down from five million pounds in the early 2000s. Agencies across the Great Lakes are trying to learn more about the population decline. Dave Caroffino, a fisheries biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, has arrived with his team at a beach in Leland on Lake Michigan. They’ve brought a long net, or seine. “So, once we find a decent spot, we spread our beach seine out. It’s 150 feet long,” he says. “We stretch the net out, and then just kind of sweep it to one side, and we kind of go parallel to the beach as far as we can.” They’re at the beach to catch juvenile whitefish. Caroffino says lake whitefish are by far the most important commercial fish species in the Great Lakes, and a decline in the population is a big deal for fisheries, tourism and the economy. “We might think that ‘well, we’ll just switch to something else,’ but there isn’t enough of anything else that you can just switch to,” he explains. Commercial fisheries are already dealing with the decline, catching fewer fish and adjusting their business models. The mussel behind the decline Fisheries biologists say the main reason whitefish are declining is because of changes in the food web. Caroffino says, basically, invasive mussels – particularly quagga mussels – are blanketing the bottom of the lakes. “Quagga basically filter nutrients out of the water,” says Caroffino, “which don’t allow phytoplankton and zooplankton to really abound.” Juvenile whitefish eat zooplankton. So, when there are less zooplankton, it’s harder for young whitefish to survive. Scientists say climate change might also be hurting whitefish, and lake trout are eating some of them, but the mussels are the main culprit. Erik Crissman, a fisheries technician, helps Caroffino pull the net back in and up onto the beach. There are small fish hopping around. They’re about the length of a toothpick. There’s also a bunch of algae. Survey goals More than 10 state, federal and tribal agencies are surveying spots like this in Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada, and they’ve been doing it for the past five years. The goal of these surveys is to help biologists predict harvest numbers in the future and better understand what’s affecting the fish at each site. “Recognizing that we can’t flip a switch and change Lake Michigan, we’re trying to figure out what can we do – what’s our small part to understanding what’s going on,” says Caroffino. Then, he says, they’ll be better at managing the Great Lakes for whitefish. Huddled on the beach, they measure the whitefish to see if they’re getting enough food to grow and survive. All in all, they catch 15 juvenile whitefish in this haul. Caroffino says he didn’t have high hopes for this year. “Really, overall the biggest surprising thing for me this year is that we’re catching decent numbers of fish in many areas,” he says. He says that hasn’t happened since 2015. Caroffino doesn’t know why this year has been better, but he says he should know more in September. That’s when all the agencies’ survey results will be combined. Caroffino wants one thing to be clear: whitefish aren’t going away. “No sounding the alarm here. Whitefish will always be a part of the Great Lakes ecosystem,” he says. But he says there just might be fewer fish to catch and eat in the future.
