Biomass Chart

I posted the Blue Ribbon Reports biomass chart on another thread, and Pool2Fool NHamm asked if it had been updated. A quick email to Eric w the DNR put me in touch w the modelers department that generates these, and here is the latest. Eric also sent me the 74 page Sampling Report Raw data, if anyone is interested in that PM me your email and I’ll forward it to you. Regardless of our individual opinions this is encouraging imo. Also this is in KG, so you can multiply by 2.2046 to get pounds.

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Thanks for sharing Werm. I think @nhamm was asking about the recent numbers but I appreciate it just the same.

pool2fool wrote:

Thanks for sharing Werm. I think @nhamm was asking about the recent numbers but I appreciate it just the same.

My apologies, my memory is so bad I already forgot what I had for lunch.

Good info!

Zander Nordby wrote:

The Wharf selling for $550K!?!? That’s peanuts for buying a nice resort. This is the trough of the trough of the bottom of the market.

I thought that was Gregory’s at that price. I didn’t see a sale price listed for the Wharf. As someone (bigwerm?) pointed out in the other thread, big difference being across a highway from the water vs On the water.

pool2fool wrote:

I thought that was Gregory’s at that price.

It was, the Wharf’s price hasn’t been listed anywhere online that I’ve seen, and the Real Estate Agency selling it does not post list prices for some unknown reason…

BigWerm wrote:

Regardless of our individual opinions this is encouraging imo.

I don’t know… Anyway you slice the last 20 years the line is pointing down. Are you just seeing another temporary rebound before things drop again? Too soon to tell imo.

tegg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
Regardless of our individual opinions this is encouraging imo.

I don’t know… Anyway you slice the last 20 years the line is pointing down. Are you just seeing another temporary rebound before things drop again? Too soon to tell imo.

Glass half full or half empty? I guess 4-5 years of positive growth is encouraging to me. I think it’s also important to remember we may never reach the good ol days harvest again. And that this is happening during basically 5 years catch and release regs, with minimal netting.

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BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tegg wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
Regardless of our individual opinions this is encouraging imo.

I don’t know… Anyway you slice the last 20 years the line is pointing down. Are you just seeing another temporary rebound before things drop again? Too soon to tell imo.

Glass half full or half empty? I guess 4-5 years of positive growth is encouraging to me. I think it’s also important to remember we may never reach the good ol days harvest again. And that this is happening during basically 5 years catch and release regs, with minimal netting.

You may very well be correct on that. I really think you need to see the next 5-10 years before you can get a better sense on a change in population trend. It’s definitely fair to say the bleeding has stopped for now. But… as you pointed out it’s at the expense of an angler harvest of hooking mortality only with periodic closures.

Zander Nordby wrote:

When zebes exploded there was an estimated two billion pounds of them, and an estimated two million pounds of walleye in the lake at the same time. Think about it…seriously….think about what I find hard to fathom….two BILLION pounds, a MILLION TONS, of energy/food being consumed out of the lake and being converted into the biomass of a new and foreign species.

Where did you get the 2 billion pounds from? And overall I’m curious to know what you base your strong opinions off of? It’s my opinion that the DNR has not been very accurate at assessing the # of walleye in the lake, nor the # of walleye taken from the lake by man (tribal or everyone else). So I’m skeptical of that 2 billion pound claim. I do agree Zeeb’s have a negative impact, but I’m not sure we know how big of an impact that is. Lake Erie and many other lakes have had Zeeb’s for far longer than Mille Lacs, and the canary in the coal mine is still chirping.

http://wjon.com/scientists-struggle-to-measure-impact-of-invasive-species/

there’s some speculation that perch in other lakes were using zeebs as a food source. While the lake is cleaner/clearer, it also changes the habitat or where fish will stay, maybe deeper? Even before the introduction of invasive species, the forage biomass would have fluxuations. My hope is that the perch rebound.

Perch, drum, and smallmouth apparently will all eat zebra mussels. How much of their diet comprised of them as a food source has been found to be relatively small from my understanding when it has been documented. Regardless, it’s good to know they’re intermingled into being part of the food chain even if it’s to a small degree.

Your comment on their being fluctuations in fish populations is spot on. Everything is going to fluctuate to varying degrees. I should clarify that when I previously mentioned zebes decreasing and the staying consistently at where they level off, I mean they will stay at their normal population range, which they like everything else will fluctuate. It’ll fluctuate within a range where the high and low population levels is…well, even the “high” level should be drastically lower than the level reached during their explosion in 2011 & peak in 2012.

The lower the level for their population range the better.

Having seen firsthand the lake substrate in Green Bay where they’ve been around for decades, my belief is that we’re going to see a much, much lower population range for them in Mille Lacs. 2012 was just nuts…there’s no way any organism won’t choke itself off to some degree when existing in such absurd levels.