On:
In: cisco, food-fish coordinator, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, lake whitefish, Sharon Moen, Sweden, Wisconsin Commercial Fisherman’s Association

Last week, Sea Grant’s Sharon Moen was the recipient of an Appreciation Award from the Wisconsin Commercial Fishing Association to honor her work to secure the overseas market for whitefish and cisco roe in Sweden.

In 2021, Moen responded to Wisconsin commercial fisher and fish processor requests for help in addressing challenges to the export of Great Lakes lake whitefish and Lake Superior cisco roe to Sweden. Negative sustainability ratings developed by the World Wildlife Fund-European Union prompted ICA Sweden–the largest grocery market chain in the country–and other markets, to remove the roe from shelves.

Moen, food-fish outreach coordinator, intervened and due to that educational outreach spanning roughly two years, the rating was changed last fall so sales valued at $15 million annually can resume.

Two people standing next to each other in a room. One person is holding a microphone. The other person is holding an award.

Sharon Moen accepts an award from the president of Wisconsin’s commercial fishing industry in honor of her work to restore a $15-million overseas market for Great Lakes fish products. Photo: Cindy Hudson, Michigan Sea Grant.

“I’m so pleased Wisconsin Sea Grant could facilitate the flow of evidence-based information in a way that helped the commercial fishing industry,” Moen said. “Sustainable fisheries management is an important topic and one our commercial fishers, fisheries managers and Sea Grant takes seriously.”

About Moen’s contribution, the association’s president Daniel Schwarz, said, “Moen’s commitment to this global project was extraordinary. No matter the size of the obstacle thrown her way, she managed to effectively tackle it and successfully conquer it. It is rare these days to see someone who truly cares to the point of no option for failure. Moen took the time to understand the issues at hand directly meeting with fishermen, processors/exporters around the upper Great Lakes in addition to reaching out to regulating government offices to collect updated correct information regarding the current status of the upper Great Lakes fishing industry.”

He continued, “Moen then effectively communicated all this information to Scandinavian regulatory agencies as well as consumers to build back the confidence in and credibility of the Great Lakes products. This enormous undertaking by one person took great leadership and communication skills, determination and passion.”

Schwarz is the owner of Dan’s Fish Inc., which is based in Sturgeon Bay. Wisconsin’s tribal and state-licensed commercial fishers primary catch lake whitefish, cisco and lake trout from Lake Superior. In Lake Michigan, state-licensed commercial fishers target lake whitefish and yellow perch. Burbot, rainbow smelt and chubs also make up part of Wisconsin’s Great Lakes commercial catch.

 

The post Moen honored by Wisconsin’s commercial fishers first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/moen-honored-by-wisconsins-commercial-fishers/

Moira Harrington

On:
In: cisco, commercial fisheries, Lake Superior, löjrom, roe, Sharon Moen, skirom, Sweden, whitefish
Dish and small spoon. Dish contains orange-pink fish eggs, known as caviar.

Wisconsin commercial fishermen will again have access to a lucrative European market for their fish roe, otherwise known as caviar, thanks to Wisconsin Sea Grant. Photo: Sharon Moen

Swedish hospitality wouldn’t be complete without a spread of crackers or bread and accompanying roe, the eggs from fish and also known as caviar. Because of Sea Grant’s role in facilitating the exchange of information, some of this roe will be coming from the Great Lakes.

A Sept. 28 decision from the World Wildlife Fund-Sweden to rank Wisconsin commercial lake whitefish and cisco fisheries as “best choice” with regard to sustainability means the roe from these fish can grace Swedish tables as a tasty, salty treat of skirom or löjrom without obstacles.  

Prior to that release of a “green, best choice” ranking for commercial fisheries in the Wisconsin and Michigan waters of Lake Superior the lake whitefish fishery, which yields sikrom, was in jeopardy. The cisco fishery of Lake Superior, which yields löjrom, was also in question. Great Lakes commercial fishers rely on the international sale of roe, a high-value product, to make ends meet.

Sharon Moen, Sea Grant’s food fish outreach coordinator, explained: “About two years ago, I was contacted by a fish processor/seafood importer/exporter operating in Door County. Because lake whitefish and cisco were rated red (unsustainable) by the World Wildlife Fund-Sweden, roe sales were plummeting as the products were being pulled from Swedish markets. The vigor with which red-rated products are leaving the Swedish marketplace has escalated each year since then. If the ratings didn’t change this year, the Great Lakes roe industry would have been devastated.”

Thanks to Moen’s intervention that rating changed from red to green early in the morning on Sept. 28 when new rankings were released. What led up to that change were Moen’s presentations to the Swedish Seafood forum, production and distribution of fact sheets on the fishery and lengthy facilitated conversations. She brought together Great Lakes fisheries managers, roe processors, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch staff, World Wildlife Fund-EU, World Wildlife Fund-Sweden and Swedish seafood industry leaders.

There is another “green” to celebrate, green to the tune of $15 million annually. That’s the estimate from domestic tribal and commercial fishers and processors about the worth of their anticipated roe export to Europe.

“Within minutes of my Sept. 28 joint presentation with Andy Edwards, treaty natural resources manager with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the two largest retail chains in

Close-up of smiling person

Sharon Moen is the food fish outreach coordinator and brought together many parties to discuss Lake Superior lake whitefish and cisco.

Sweden contacted an importer to place orders,” said Moen.

One of those importers reached out to Moen and said, “It’s thanks to your hard work and extraordinary presentation our deepest wishes came true!,” said Tony Hartwig, CEO of Olle Hartwig Aktiebolag. “Now, we have busy days working out a market plan to promote roe again from Lake Superior, Wisconsin!”

Moen is pleased the ranking has been changed because she wholeheartedly stands by the science behind the management of the fishery and the professionalism of the commercial fishers. “From my perspective, the red rating reflected communication challenges, the complexity of Great Lakes fisheries management and the scarcity of money for a due-diligence assessment.”

As Dan Grooms said, “Fishing the Apostle Islands for food had been an integral part of the Anishinaabe’s way of life. Our fishers and our tribe depend on responsible fisheries management for sustainability for future generations.” Grooms was formerly the business manager of Red Cliff Fish Co., a business owned by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

The post Sea Grant education on fishery expected to lead to $15 million in exports to Sweden first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/sea-grant-education-on-fishery-expected-to-lead-to-15-million-in-exports-to-sweden/

Moira Harrington

On:
In: Center for Limnology, cisco, ciscoes, coregonine, coregonines, Jake Vander Zanden

In a concise and informative new video released today, Wisconsin Sea Grant illuminates the varied coregonines, commonly known as cisco, which have pulsed through Great Lakes waters for 12,000 years. Now, due to human influences, the fork-tailed fish are diminished in number and range, and display less diverse forms. They are the subject of a research project by a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“The ciscoes were some of the most numerous and populous fish in the Great Lakes,” said Ben Martin, Ph.D. student working with lead researcher Jake Vander Zanden who is the chair and director of the Center for Limnology. Martin noted ciscos’ importance as a food source for apex predators, both in the past and present-day.

To learn the future of the species, Vander Zanden is looking toward the past—exploring the fish found in dozens and dozens of jars that the video shows on rolling storage shelves housed at a zoology museum on the Madison campus.

“We go to these museum specimens. We take a tiny tissue sample. We take these chemical measurements, and we make these inferences about the diet and feeding of these species,” Vander Zanden said.

Jake Vander Zanden samples a museum specimen of a cisco to unlock details of the past Great Lakes food web. Photo by Bonnie Willison.

These fish that have been lifeless for 100 years will now breathe new life into an understanding of that past food web. Beyond analysis based on archived fish, samples from across the Great Lakes Basin, many from a collection at the University of Michigan in addition to the UW-Madison ones, Martin is assessing modern-day cisco morphometrics, that is, their physical diversity.  

Pairing both types of knowledge contributes to ecological restoration. Vander Zanden said there is interest in bringing back ciscoes that feed higher predators. “We want to maximize our understanding of the past and hopefully use that as a guide (for restoration) moving forward.”

Sea Grant Videographer Bonnie Willison said, “As Jake, Ben and collaborators altered their research agenda during the pandemic, I had to alter the way I shoot video. We did virtual interviews and distanced filming to pull this off.”

She continued, “I was very intrigued by the problem of studying fish that don’t exist in the lakes anymore. I’m happy to profile this important study that will shed light on how to make positive changes in the lakes as they exist now.”

Martin and Vander Zanden stressed the value of collaboration on this project and expressed appreciation for colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey, Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, University of Wyoming and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The post New video illuminates how ancestral and present-day ciscoes provide understanding of the Great Lakes food web first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/new-video-illuminates-how-ancestral-and-present-day-ciscoes-provide-understanding-of-the-great-lakes-food-web/

Moira Harrington