Measuring the Potential Impact of Muskellunge Predation to Sport and Forage Fish Populations

Summary

This 2002 study by Wisconsin Senior fisheries biologist Thomas "Skip" Sommerfeldt states:

1) "I conclude that muskellunge predation can have a severe effect on resident fish populations."

2) "Muskellunge predation would rank as the number one cause of walleye mortality in Butternut Lake in 1998." 3) "On lower Clam Lake, as muskellunge populations rose walleye populations declined "

4) On Turner Lake, "muskellunge predation on Walleye was a suspected problem during the 1991 survey as an unusually high number of walleye were observed to have scars or open wounds inflicted by failed predator attacks." 5) Biologist Sommerfeldt concludes that high musky populations: "can have a severe effect in sport and forage populations and this impact is more 'acute', the greater the muskellunge density."

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