Updated 9/13/24: Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission voted on Thursday, September 12th, in favor of the updated steelhead fishing regulations, and one added amendment. The new order takes effect on April 1, 2025.
State conservation officials are considering another change that could further restrict steelhead harvest.
It’s a small change: The aim is to prevent steelhead from being overfished.
But some say it’s another instance of officials tightening the screws against scientific evidence.
One voice in favor of these restrictions is Bryan Burroughs. He’s the executive director of Michigan Trout Unlimited.
"You got to put the fish first. And things are not okay with them," said Burroughs, who along with many other anglers, is concerned about a decline in steelhead.
Anglers say they are having a harder time catching fish, and they worry too many people keeping too many fish could be causing the issue.
The Natural Resources Commission heard those concerns from the public. So last fall, they lowered the steelhead bag limit from three fish to one.
Burroughs and Trout Unlimited were in favor of the change.
"No group actually initiated it," said Burroughs. "The commissioners [were] saying, 'Hey, the steelhead numbers look like they're down. We're hearing from anglers that are having a harder time successfully catching fish. If the numbers are down, why aren't we backing off of how fast we let people harvest them?'"
The intent of the change was to air on the side of caution until research could give a better answer about what was causing the problem.
But the fisheries scientists paid to keep an eye on this say existing research on this is pretty clear.
"There's no smoking gun that says we have a problem," said Dan O'Keefe, a biologist and educator with Michigan Sea Grant. Sea Grant has no stance on the regulation.
O'Keefe says steelhead numbers are lower than they used to be, but not because of over-harvest. He says populations have been steady for 20 years.
"There's no trend up or down for the last 20 years on most areas that we do have information for. So there's nothing that seems indicative of a need for a change," he said.
Still, the Natural Resources Commission lowered the steelhead bag limit against the advice of DNR biologists last fall.
But a gray area in the rule’s language has made it possible for anglers to keep more than one fish on certain rivers.
Now commissioners want to clarify that language, making it a hard one fish limit — which is what they originally intended.
But some critics say the new clarification is yet another unnecessary restriction on steelhead harvest.
"I will feel that ... we as a public or we as sports fishermen, were duped. We we were led into it last fall, thinking it would do no harm," said Dennis Eade, executive director of the Michigan Steelhead and Salmon Fishermen's Association.
Eade says the NRC is being unfairly influenced by special interest groups.
"They're listening to river guides more than they should because the river guides’ motivation is profit," he said. "They're listening to Trout Unlimited people because Trout Unlimited people don't want to go to a stream and only have three or four hits on any given day, they would like to have more action.
It’s true that a lower bag limit will mean there’s more fish to catch and release.
But commissioner Dave Cozad says that’s not the reason behind the change.
He says they’ve heard concerns from all kinds of anglers, not just special interest groups.
"We have public comment in each of our NRC meetings, and the stakeholders do come and they do participate," Cozad said. "What we heard from them over the last several years is that there's been — from their point of view —there's been a decline in the number of steelhead returning to rivers in Michigan."
Cozad says the science on whether steelhead are in decline is unclear.
Steelhead bag limits haven’t really changed much in the last 20 years, and the commission is airing on the side of caution until they can get more data on what’s actually happening to the species.
"The question that many people pose to commissioners is, 'Do you really think that the one fish limit will produce more fish returning to the river to spawn, which in turn creates more opportunity for anglers?' And my answer would be, ‘I hope so, but I don't know that,’" he said.
Cozad says the changes that they’ll consider this week just clarify the one fish limit that was passed last fall and clear up that gray area that was created.
Bryan Burroughs with Trout Unlimited agrees. He says the change will make the regulation passed last fall less confusing.
"That group of anglers who still didn't like it last fall [and] don't like it now will communicate about this language cleanup matching the intent— they're going to use the opportunity to claim and assert that their perception, their perspective, is that the NRC is up to it again and further tightening it," he said.
Dan O’Keefe, the biologist with Michigan Sea Grant, says the science is clear that there's no biological need to reduce harvest. And changing regulations could muddy up ongoing research that would give us an even clearer picture.
"If things do improve, it'll be tempting to say, well, they improved because we had lower limits. But that is not necessarily the case," O'Keefe said.
Some anglers worry that the restrictions don’t have biological grounding, but could have social and economic consequences.
Others hope the changes and airing on the side of caution could help a fishery long past its heyday.
The Natural Resources Commission will meet to discuss the regulation changes on Thursday, September 12 in Lansing. That meeting is open to the public.
