Smith: Wisconsin sturgeon program a paragon of natural resource management

OSHKOSH -The frozen surface of Lake Winnebago was cross-hatched with roads and peppered with tiny, one-room houses.

By official count, 4,448 shanties adorned the ice on Feb. 10.

Unofficially, it was Wisconsin's largest temporary village.

The attraction? Opening day of the 2018 sturgeon spearing season.

"It's what many of us up here live for," said Bill McAloon of Oshkosh, a director of the conservation organization Sturgeon For Tomorrow.

The Lake Winnebago system, including the Upriver Lakes of Butte des Morts, Poygan and Winneconne, is home to one of the world's largest populations of lake sturgeon.

And nowhere else on the planet hosts such a large spear fishery for the whiskered, long-lived fish.

The pressure — 12,480 licenses were sold for the 2018 Lake Winnebago spearing season — would overwhelm most sturgeon populations. 

But here, careful harvest controls allow such high levels of participation on an annual basis.

That's a testament to the quality of the sturgeon resource, to involvement and support of the local residents, and to science-based fisheries management.

In professional circles, the Winnebago sturgeon program is often cited as a paragon of successful fisheries management.

It goes beyond that, however, and serves as a sterling example for all natural resources managers that even a vulnerable species, when given adequate protections, can generate funding and provide a sustainable public harvest.

The sturgeon population in the Winnebago system is estimated at 19,000 adult females, 25,000 adult males and many thousands more younger fish.

The sturgeon population is close to or at its carrying capacity, according to Ron Bruch, retired Department of Natural Resources fisheries chief and longtime sturgeon biologist. The annual harvest is monitored so it doesn't exceed 5% of the adult stock.

"The fish are now getting a chance to show us how long they can live and how big they can get," said Bruch, 64.

What makes the Winnebago story all the more remarkable is the history of devastation of sturgeon stocks in other parts of the world.

Sturgeon are more critically endangered than any other group of species on the planet, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Eighty-five percent of sturgeon, one of the oldest families of fishes, are at risk of extinction, according to the group.

The fish are prized especially for their eggs, which are sold as caviar. Since female sturgeon don't mature until they are 20 years of age and then only spawn once every few years, they are extremely vulnerable to overharvest.

Wisconsin residents don't need to look far for examples of over-exploitation and habitat loss. On Lake Michigan, for example, dozens of rivers historically hosted spawning runs of sturgeon; efforts are being made to restore many of them today, including on the Milwaukee River.

The seed-stock for those efforts, as well as dozens of other sites in North America, all come from the Winnebago system.

How was the sturgeon able to survive in this east-central Wisconsin waterway?

The answer lies in the richness of the local resource, both biological and human.

"To me, the sturgeon is the only fish you can become emotionally attached to," said Dan Folz, 83, retired DNR fisheries manager who was based in Oshkosh from 1974-'89.

The expansive Winnebago system includes spawning habitat, principally on the Wolf River, that sturgeon have been able to access for hundreds of years. The ecosystem also includes a wide variety of other fish and invertebrates for the sturgeon to feed on.

The human assist can be traced to 1874, when the Wisconsin Fisheries Commission was established by the Legislature to survey the status of declining fisheries in the state.

Various sturgeon harvest regulations were implemented in the following years, including size and season limitations.

But in 1915 state officials had seen enough — all sturgeon harvest was banned.

The season remained closed until the Great Depression hit.

Sturgeon fishing was reopened in 1932 as part of an economic incentive package, Bruch said. The fish provided a wild food source to financially strapped local residents.

The season began an era of regulated sturgeon harvest that continues to this day.

A two-month-long spearing season was held on Lake Winnebago in 1932; the bag limit was five fish per person per season. Tags cost 5 cents each and a fishing license was required.

A set-line season was also started in 1932 on the Upriver lakes.

In 1941, the first sturgeon harvest assessment was conducted by Wisconsin Conservation Department fisheries biologists Edward “Doc” Schneberger and Lowell Woodbury.

The average spear harvest in the 1940s was 691 sturgeon.

In 1954, Gordy Priegel, fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Conservation Department, began the first biological assessment on the sturgeon spawning stock.

In 1955, the minimum size limit for spear fishing increased from 30 inches to 40. Also that year, mandatory registration was required for all sturgeon harvested, a regulation still in place.

In 1956, the sturgeon bag limit was reduced to two fish.

Folz, who later became fisheries manager in Oshkosh, was hired by the department in 1956 and transferred to the Winnebago area in 1959.

He often joined Priegel on sturgeon outings. It was the first time Folz, a Milwaukee native, had ever seen the species.

"We’d run around the Wolf River all night looking for spawning fish," Folz said. "Up until then, we really didn't know much about the life history of the sturgeon."

Folz — who stands 6 foot 7 inches tall, played varsity basketball at the University of Wisconsin and has large, strong hands — was unmatched when it came to netting and handling sturgeon. 

To estimate the population, he and Priegel would attach metal cattle ear tags to the dorsal fin of sturgeon. The mark and recapture work was crude by today's standards as many tags fell off.

Through the 1950s, the average annual sturgeon harvest was 1,225. In the 1960s, it fell to 590.

In 1973, just eight sturgeon were registered over a 22-day season, a record low.

The reduced harvest was mostly due to high phosphorus and other nutrient levels in the lake and poor water clarity.

But it led to increasing concerns on the part of local spearers.

This highlights another part of the success story — citizen involvement.​​​​​​​

In 1977, Sturgeon For Tomorrow as formed. The conservation organization helped fund the first efforts to raise sturgeon in hatcheries as well as purchased equipment and provided volunteers for sturgeon management.

In 1977, the organization also helped form the first "Sturgeon Patrol" to guard spawning fish around the clock at sites on the Wolf River.

In 1979, sturgeon were successfully reared from eggs at the Wild Rose State Hatchery and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The average annual sturgeon spear harvest through the 1970s increased slightly to 596. 

Then, in 1982, with the first clear water conditions since the 1950s, spearers took 2,238 fish, the largest harvest in 30 years.

The high harvest, as well as loss of habitat and poor water quality, led the DNR in 1986 to start a comprehensive management plan for the Winnebago system. Bruch, then a fisheries biologist, facilitated the plan.

The average annual sturgeon spear harvest through the 1980s was 679 fish.

In 1989, when Folz was contemplating retirement, he told his superiors the only way he'd leave is if they hired Bruch to replace him.

Bruch was hired as fisheries manager in Oshkosh and helped shepherd the sturgeon program over the next 25 years.

Significantly, in 1992 Bruch formed the Winnebago Citizens Sturgeon Advisory Committee, a group of 30 sturgeon spearing and conservation organizations from the Winnebago region, to work with DNR fisheries and law enforcement staff in the development and implementation of regulations and management actions.

Through the use of increasingly sophisticated technology, including passive integrated transponders, Bruch and his staff continued to learn more about the habits and population size of the system's sturgeon.

As sturgeon spearing grew in popularity, it became clear additional protections were needed.

The sturgeon advisory committee has had a hand in developing the tougher regulations and has supported them at each step of the way.

In 2000, a harvest cap system was put in place that allows the season to be closed when a certain number of fish are taken.

In 2003, a state law was passed that raised the price of the sturgeon spearing license to $20 and required all sturgeon spearing license revenues be used only to fund the Winnebago Sturgeon Management Program.

In 2012, Bruch transferred to Madison and Ryan Koenigs was hired as Winnebago sturgeon biologist.

Although the sturgeon harvest is always influenced by ice conditions and water clarity, the fish population is in very good shape.

"I know many fish biologists around the country are envious of what we have here," Koenigs said. "But it didn't happen overnight."

This season, harvest caps of 344 juvenile sturgeon, 855 adult females and 960 adult males are in place for Lake Winnebago. With poor water clarity, the season will run the full 16 days on Winnebago; 543 fish had been speared through 13 days.

The Upriver Lakes season ended after four days with a harvest of 297 fish.

Sturgeon are not only the subject of spearing — festivals are held in communities around the region.

"We have a long legacy, and Dan's personality and Ron's collaborative nature really helped us get to where we are," said Koenigs, 33. "Now it's our job to keep it going."

The Winnebago sturgeon program is a model of sustainability and science-based resource management.

Part of that science, of course, is human dimensions and includes local residents who camp out on the river to protect the fish in the off-season.

As contemporary Wisconsin hunters and anglers, we have inherited many privileges. It's important to remember how we got here.

No story, in my opinion, does a better job at highlighting all the elements of successful natural resource management than the Winnebago sturgeon.