UW Study Says Walleye Population Being Overfished
Thursday, November 21st, 2019 -- 8:46 AM
(WRN) -A new UW study says that walleye populations are still being overfished, despite an increase in population numbers.Holly Embke is a graduate student at UW-Madison's Center for Limnology and tells WXPR Radio that they studied the total weight of walleyes that were harvested each year.
"From that we found that populations were over-harvested than what was commonly thought of based on current management findings."
Embke says that based on weight levels of harvested fish, the overall population is still being overfished.
"We found a lot of variability on a lake-to-lake basis. Some lakes could sustain much higher harvest levels than other lakes."
She says overall, walleye populations have declined by 35 percent since 1990. She says there's also been a loss of habitat and the increase of warm-water species.
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