State trims perch limit for sport fishermen

COLUMBUS

State regulators are cutting the number of yellow perch Ohio fishermen are allowed to take out of Lake Erie.

The daily bag limit for yellow perch taken from the lake will be reduced from 40 fish to 30 fish, said Sean Logan, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The change will go into effect some time next week.

Officials felt forced to react to protect the yellow perch population after the Lake Erie Committee, made up of officials from four states and a Canadian province, agreed last month to cut the allowable yellow perch catch from Lake Erie and slashed Ohio's yellow perch quota to 4.29 million pounds, 34 percent lower than last year's allowable catch of 7.48 million pounds.

Ohio is allocating 2.8 million of its quota this year for sports fishing and 2.1 million for commercial fishermen, said Roger Knight, Lake Erie Fisheries Program administrator.

Commercial fishermen face a cut in what they will be allowed to catch, although quotas for each area of the lake haven't been announced yet. They'll be revealed by the time the commercial fishing season for yellow perch begins on May 1.

In the meantime, the new catch limit is being imposed on sports fishermen to make sure they don't exceed their quota this year. Sports fishermen are allowed to catch fish all year long, so ODNR officials felt constrained to act almost immediately.

"We were concerned if we didn't do something, we would almost certainly be well over the quota," Knight said.

The department is taking "rather bold steps but necessary steps for the long-term vitality of the species," Logan said.

Changing the rules takes about 90 days. Normally, the department would have initiated the bag limit change last fall, but it did not anticipate then that Ohio's yellow perch quota would be slashed, Knight said.

The Wildlife Council voted last week to initiate the change. But to get the rule changed quickly, the department asked Gov. Ted Strickland to issue an emergency order, and the governor agreed.

As of late Friday afternoon, Strickland had not signed the order.

"The governor intends to act on it next week," said his spokesman, Keith Dailey.

The bag limits are enforced by officers who work for the Division of Wildlife, which is part of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Violations of the bag limit are a fourth-degree misdemeanor. The maximum possible penalties are a $250 fine with court costs, 30 days in jail and the loss of a fishing license for three years, said Kevin Ramsey, Lake Erie law enforcement supervisor for the Division of Wildlife.

In practice, first-time offenders get much less than that and punishment varies according to the habits of the local judge. Still, a first-time offender can face a $150 to $200 fine with court costs in some jurisdictions, and penalties get much stiffer for repeat offenders.

"It's not like a parking ticket. It's a criminal penalty," Ramsey said.