On Muskie Genetics... DNR must accept blame By Kurt Krueger Vilas County News Review MANY PEOPLE believe the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is too stubborn or too all-knowing — or both — to admit that the agency has unintentionally damaged Muskie genetics toward small-strain fish. Using what Minnesota discovered about its Muskie genetics some 20 years ago and the results of their sweeping change in hatchery operations, a small team of Muskies Inc. members is calling for a major restoration effort in Wisconsin. The new research shows the DNR mixed large-growth and small-growth strains, causing a major decline in the number of trophy fish 50 inches and larger. It also alleges that for the sake of convenience, fisheries personnel have gathered muskellunge eggs mostly from fish with an average length of just 33½ inches, instead of taking them from longer fish that had proven largegrowth potential. Top DNR officials have both praised and discounted the new research. While they call more emphasis on Muskie brood-stock management a great idea, they say the team's proposed restoration plan is overly simplistic. The scribbler certainly doesn't have the answers, but I think the public would like to hear, just once, an admission from the DNR that they fell asleep at the fisheries biology wheel. Don't hold your breath. What we got a couple of weeks ago from Mike Staggs, director of the DNR's Bureau of Fisheries, was only that the new research has the department enthused about improving its work.
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