Invasion of the other perch

[Spiel]

Invasion of the other perch

 

White perch, a cousin of the white bass and native to the Atlantic, has made it's way into Lake Michigan

 

 

 

Friday, August 21, 2009

Dennis Cogswell / heraldpalladium.com

 

 

White Perch

 

 

White Bass

Michigan Department of Natural Resources images

The white perch and white bass are part of the same genus, morone, and look very similar to the untrained eye. The white perch is native to the Atlantic coast, but has made its way through the Great Lakes and can be found as close as Lake Macatawa, near Holland. The fish is considered invasive, so there is no creel limit. It can cross-breed with white bass, and feeds on walleye and white bass eggs.

 

 

Mention perch to most people and they'll think of the slim green and yellow (in inland lakes) or silvery (in Lake Michigan) fish that is near the top of many culinary lists.

 

That's the yellow perch. But Michigan has another perch that is becoming increasingly more common. A native of the Atlantic Coast, where it exists in both salt and freshwater, the white perch invaded the Great Lakes in 1950 through the Erie Canal. It is now established in all five Great Lakes, reaching Lake Michigan in 1988.

 

It's been found in Lake Macatawa, a drowned rivermouth that enters Lake Michigan at Holland, abut 40 miles away, and it seems inevitable it will eventually make its way here.

 

White perch are really not perch at all but members of the genus morone, the same family that includes striped bass, yellow bass and white bass. In fact, white perch are often confused with white bass, which are similar in appearance. The two species sometimes mate and produce hybrids. Since the hybrids are capable of back-crossing, there is concern they could dilute the gene pool of both parent species.

 

White bass, which are native to Michigan, are usually silver, with 5 to 7 dark horizontal stripes, and average 9 to 15 inches. White perch are silvery green on the sides, have no stripes and average 5 to 7 inches. The state record is 1 pound, 14 ounces, and was caught in Lake Huron. White perch over 12 inches have been taken in the Grand River and Muskegon Lake.

 

White perch prey on walleye and white bass eggs and feed on baitfish favored by both species. In Lake Erie, which is known for walleyes, white perch have become the most common fish. White bass numbers have generally declined.

 

Although they are regarded as an undesirable fish in some areas because of their tendency to compete with more desirable species, white perch are actually good eating and fight much like a bluegill. White perch sell for about $7 a pound in the supermarket, about half the cost of yellow perch.

 

Because it is viewed as an invasive species, Michigan has no size or bag limit on white perch.

 

Michigan Sea Grant agent Dan O'Keefe says white perch have colonized Lake Michigan waters around Chicago and off Indiana, as well as Green Bay. Will they compete with yellow perch?

 

"I know that in Green Bay it was a real issue," he said. "I talked with people in Wisconsin and they were worried that they were really abundant and they would take off."

 

But so far, O'Keefe says there's been no causal link between white perch and any decline in the yellow perch population in Green Bay.

 

He says the white perch population exploded in Lake St. Clair for a while, then suddenly diminished.

 

The species seems to do better in warmer, shallower bay and drowned rivermouth areas of Lake Michigan such as Little Bay De Noc, Mona Lake, Muskegon Lake and Lake Charlevoix. That may preclude any large populations off Berrien and Van Buren counties.

 

But they've also thrived in the Grand River, and that could mean the St. Joseph River is ripe for an invasion.

[Jonny]

Very informative.

 

I don't suppose there is much that can be done about it, though, once an invasive species becomes established. It creates a new balance.

 

I wonder if the white bass is classed as a game fish in Michigan. In Ontario it isn't.