WHAT'S  NEW  AT  THE  LAKE

A Growing Risk to the Lake Vermilion Fishery?

[Excerpts from an article in the April 21, 2012, issue of the Timberjay.]

[Editor's note:  Ed Tausk, quoted in this article as a resort owner, is also a Sportsmen's Club of Lake Vermilion board member.]

Is a rising population of double-crested cormorants on Lake Vermilion impacting fishing and the area economy?

That’s the contention of a growing number of resort owners, fishing guides, and local officials, and they are advocating action now to control the cormorant population. Without such an effort, they say Lake Vermilion could suffer the same fate Leech Lake experienced several years ago, when a burgeoning cormorant population was linked to significant declines in walleye numbers there. An aggressive cormorant control program on Leech Lake, combined with increased stocking, has since allowed that lake’s fishery to recover.

“We think there should be action now,” said Phil Bakken, a Lake Vermilion fishing guide. “We don’t want to wait until the fishery degrades.”

That same thinking was behind a local group’s recent visit to Walker to learn more about the push to control cormorants on Leech Lake.

Ed Tausk, who helped organize the visit, said business owners who make their living from Vermilion and its fishing resource need to understand the impact that a declining fishery could have on the area economy. Tausk, who owns Vermilion Dam Lodge, said the experience at Leech Lake should be a wake-up call for the Lake Vermilion area. Leech Lake saw explosive growth in the cormorant population in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the number of nesting pairs exploded from just 79, to nearly 2,500 by 2004.

What followed was a big drop in Leech Lake’s walleye population that quickly caught the attention of anglers who had flocked to the big lake for years. As anglers switched to other lakes, Tausk said the Leech Lake community was hit hard. “Resorts had shut down, and it had impacted businesses in Walker,” said Tausk.

After much organized effort by local business owners, Leech Lake tribal officials, and others, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service approved a management plan that called for cormorant control. Over the next few years, approximately 9,300 cormorants were killed on Leech Lake. Combined with an aggressive stocking program, the lake’s walleye population has recovered, as has the local economy.

The DNR fisheries staff in Tower has been monitoring the cormorant situation on Lake Vermilion for several years. DNR Large Lake Specialist Duane Williams said cormorant nests have jumped from 32 in 2004, to 338 last year. That’s still a far cry from the 2,500 nests once found on Leech Lake, but it’s the trend that is raising concerns.

While the Minnesota DNR does have a general depredation order from the US Fish and Wildlife Service that allows them to control cormorant populations, it must first demonstrate that fisheries are actually being harmed on a specific lake. Williams said that’s been a problem so far on Lake Vermilion, where the latest DNR test-netting shows a healthy walleye population that’s higher than the long-term average and one of the strongest of any lake in the state. Still, DNR officials acknowledge that the lake’s perch population has been on a downward trend and is now below the long-term average.

For more information from the DNR's Lake Vermilion test netting, please see the complete 2011 Fisheries Management Report.

For more information about the history of cormorants on Lake Vermilion and the cormorant survey process, click here.