May 1: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released the "Commercial Fisheries Baseline Economic Assessment - U.S. Waters of the Great Lakes, Upper Mississippi River, and Ohio River Basins" (Commercial Fisheries Report), an Interim Product of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS). The baseline report provides a thorough summary of the most recently available commercial fisheries data in the GLMRIS study area. The GLMRIS Team will use the assessment and other baseline reports to further the understanding of existing conditions, as well as to help forecast impacts from potential aquatic nuisance species transfer.
The average harvest level in the U.S. waters of the Great Lakes is estimated at 19.3 million pounds of commercially-caught fish with an associated average value of $22.5 million. Similar analysis estimates 10 million pounds with an associated value of $4 million for the Upper Mississippi River Basin and approximately 1.4 million pounds with an associated value of about $2 million in the Ohio River Basin. Two complimentary fisheries baseline assessments will be released later this spring: subsistence fisheries and pro-fishing tournaments. An assessment of recreational angling in the GLMRIS study area is anticipated at the end of 2012.
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