WINNEBAGO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Sturgeon spearing season is less than two months away and eight federal lawmakers from Wisconsin are trying to make sure the tradition lives on.
These officials wrote a letter to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as it decides whether to add the lake sturgeon to the Endangered Species Act.
“It’s controlled to an absolute science,” said Don Mielke of Menasha when talking about the sturgeon population in the Lake Winnebago system.
Mielke has been spearing sturgeon on the Lake Winnebago system more than 50 years, and just recently helped bring back the area’s voluntary sturgeon guard after a three-year break during COVID. He’s one of many that believes Wisconsin should be exempt if the prehistoric fish is added to the federal Endangered Species Act.
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“That’s why we went to the quota system for sturgeon fishing, so we can control our own destiny,” said Mielke.
Mielke serves on the Sturgeon Advisory Committee, which works with the DNR to help set the number of sturgeon that can be harvested each year. It’s to ensure the species will be safe for future generations.
The careful management and much more was outlined in a bipartisan letter from Wisconsin federal lawmakers, including Congressmen Mike Gallagher and Glenn Grothman and Senators Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin.
They tell the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, “We are concerned that a potential listing of the species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) could curtail this successful, science-based management model as well as threaten a cherished and unique Wisconsin tradition.”
The lawmakers also mention the economic impact, which is $3.5 million for the two-week spearing season, and $200 million for the overall impact fishing brings to the Lake Winnebago system.
“I’m glad that our politicians are joining forces on a bipartisan situation and looking at making Wisconsin exempt,” said Mielke.
A representative for the Fish and Wildlife Service tells FOX 11 it is reviewing the status of the fish after a 2018 petition “presented substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing may be warranted.”
The service has a court-ordered deadline to finish its review by the end of June.
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