LAKE SUPERIOR COMMITTEE

Campus Inn
Ann Arbor, Michigan
22, 23 March 1994

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. Lake Superior Lakewide Management Plan

1. The Lake Superior Technical Committee will report to the LSC on LaMP ecosystem objectives (adequacy and appropriateness) and the LaMP state of the lake report, in order that Bob Thomson (OMNR) and Tom Gorenflo (COTFMA) may write LaMP organizers by 4 May. Thomson will provide background material to technical committee members as identified by Mike Hansen (NBS).
2. The Technical Committee will also recommend to the LSC appropriate indicators compatible with assessment practices. The LaMP Lake Superior Working Group co-chaired by Chuck Ledin (MDNR) and Jake Van der Wahl (EnvCan) have a target date of October 1995 for reporting indicators to the IJC. The Work Group will assist the LSTC as possible (literature reviews, info on indicators used by others). Depending on availability of funding, a soon-to-be-hired technical generalist will collaborate with the Technical Committee. Rob Steedman (OMNR) and Bob Kavetsky (USFWS) will be in contact with the Technical Committee as well.

2. Stocking Criteria

1. Tom Gorenflo (COTFMA) and Neil Kmiecik (GLIFWC) will ASAP through FAX provide for LSC consideration an alternative to using "TAC +/- 10%" as a stocking criteria. Comments should be provided to Mike Hansen (NBS) who will provide a revised set of criteria for LSC approval by 1 May, in order to meet a deadline for publication of the lake trout restoration plan. One suggestion was that three years of exceeding TAC by 10% should trigger action -- either revised regulations or review of the model.
   
   (The other stocking criteria were commitment to rehabilitation, 50% wild fish in population, CPE stable or rising, and survival index of stocked fish less than 1 for three years.)
   
2.  The Technical Committee will provide narrative explaining that the decision tree integrates information and is not a hierarchical process.
   
3. Survival index should be defined, i.e.
   
   

3. NBS Funding

Asserting that the Great Lakes comprise a key ecosystem run on millions of dollars, the LSC referred to the CLC and GLFC the issue on underfunding for NBS.

4. Steelhead Committee

Don Schreiner (MnDNR) will call a meeting of the Steelhead Committee, requesting that it choose a nominee for new chairman, whom Mike Hansen (NBS) will then appoint in a letter also conveying the Committee's terms of reference and 1994 charge. The Committee is to report on the status of steelhead and report in 1995 through the Technical Committee. Their efforts to reconcile regulations for all species are to be restricted to border areas rather than lakewide.

5. Lake Trout Restoration Plan

LSC comments on draft lake trout restoration plan are to be forwarded to Mike Hansen (NBS) ASAP, for compilation, and distribution to LSC. The LSC will consider 1 May whether a meeting is needed to give approval for publication by GLFC. The white report format is acceptable.

6. Causes of Lake Trout Declines

The LSC approved Technical Committee (Jim Peck (MDNR), Dick Schorfhaar (MDNR) and Mike Hansen (NBS)) plans to reconstruct lake trout CPE by units, and to examine causes for declining lake trout in Lake Superior, e.g. size at release, originating hatchery.

7. Fish Community Objectives

The LSC considered indicator and targets choice, review of environmental objectives workshop, and IMSL products as precursor exercises to revision of fish community objectives.

8. U.S. Advisors

The LSC advised the GLFC with regard to its planned review of its Vision, that low Advisor attendance at Lake Committee meetings was problematic. Roles, meeting scheduling, appointments, and travel support were cited as problem areas.

9. Lake Superior Law Enforcement Subcommittee

The Law Enforcement Subcommittee requested time on the 1995 agenda of the LSC.

MD
19 April 1994 

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