New York’s Great Lakes region consists of Lakes Ontario and Erie,
their tributaries, and the St. Lawrence and Niagara Rivers.
Lakes
Erie and Ontario boast some of the most successful ecological and
economic comebacks in the modern history of the Great Lakes. From the
ashes of ecological disasters created from almost 150 years of
commercial overfishing, loss of many native fish species, habitat
destruction, excessive nutrient inputs, toxic contamination, and exotic
species introductions, two of the preeminent sportfisheries in the
world have been established.
Anglers from all over the world come to
fish in open waters of Lake Ontario and in the numerous tributaries
and streams primarily for trophy-sized trout and salmon, smallmouth
bass and panfish. New York’s Great Lakes region has also seen rebounding
in the commercial fisheries of yellow perch and brown bullhead.
With so many communities along New York’s Great Lakes’ shores
dependent on economic revenues generated from fishing-related
businesses, information on socioeconomic trends is critically important
to these small business owners so as to better manage, market and
promote their businesses.
New York Sea Grant’s role has been to develop
and disseminate educational materials which have been effective in
helping these entrepreneurs adapt their business strategies. For
example, information based on fisheries trends can help stakeholders
better anticipate changes in marketing and promotional emphasis in
offshore versus inshore fisheries, bait and tackle choices, angling
techniques and target species sought.
As hundreds of businesses in New York State and the Province
of Ontario depend on economic revenues generated by the world-class
sportfisheries in Lakes Erie and Ontario, there has been escalating
concern for the future sustainability of the fishery among researchers,
fisheries managers and fishery stakeholder groups due to changes in
nutrient loading, forage base instability and its assessment,
non-indigenous species impacts, heavy stocking pressure, resource
utilization issues, cormorant predation and the overall complexity of
managing large ecosystems. Such concerns are often attributable to a
combination of factors related to ecosystem uncertainty and risk
management.
We hope that the information found on this Web site will be
of help to both the resource users and the research/management
community.
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