Facing Threats for a Net Gain
By Amelia Levin

It's the crack of dawn and the water's calm. With the sun just beginning to rise, Mike LeClair and his fishing team gear up to set the Jamie Ann to sail on Lake Michigan, heading off the coast of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, at the base of the Door Country Peninsula. Once they reach 25miles out, they'll drop anchor and set upmesh traps running deep to the lake's floor. The target catch for the winter months: lake whitefish.  First, they'll throw out the lead, a 1,200-foot nylon fence running from 30-feet below on up that's meant to steer the schooling fish upward toward the "heart" or center of the netted maze, about 20 feet by 20 feet wide and 40 feet high. Then it's a waiting game as the fish, lured by bait, swimup into the stainless-steel crab trap looking like one of those giant cages straight out of a Deadliest Catch episode on the Discovery Channel.

LeClair and his team heave the trap up and over, clanging against the tugboat-like trawler's deck. Fish of all kind splash and squirm, still alive.  Whitefish or chub depending on the season, along with any smelt, get scooped up to stay. Everything else goes back. This is how a sustainable fishery works. This is how the 62-year-old Susie Q Fish Company works.  "We fish for whitefish, and also smelt and chubs," says LeClair, a fourth-generation fisherman who's grandfather started the Two Rivers, Wisconsin-based commercial fishery. "We've always used trap nets for fishing. It's the most sustainable for us and for the lake."

Not all fisheries use sustainable practices, posing a threat to the viability of the Great Lakes fish stock. Gill nets, once popular, are illegal in some parts Of Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan but, in tough times, some operations can get desperate and set out the massive and inconspicuous netting, catching fish by the gills, killing any that swim into the structure. Dead fish caught with this method result in a dull-tasting product, but produce larger harvests for struggling fisheries. This practice is also harmful to the ecosystem because gill nets scoop up everything from the ocean floor, including plants and algae, depleting resources and endangering species.

There's another looming threat out there to Great Lakes seafood: invasive species.

Sea lampreys, as well as zebra and quagga mussels, are a good example of the 345 non-native species that have made new homes in the Great Lakes after escaping from ocean-going ships, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Sea lampreys literally are blood-sucking, worm-like parasites which attach to the sides of other fish and clean them out. Zebra mussels are like natural filtering devices, vacuuming out the lake floor including the microscopic food that other native fish like to eat. Whitefish have been able to adapt to these by eating the mussels, but other fish, such as chub (a small silver fish about 4 inches long) and sardine-like smelt are competing with them for the same food source, microscopic plankton, LeClair says. "We're lucky that at least there are some whitefish still around to keep us busy for a few months and that their change in diet hasn't affected their taste. But chubs and smelt are way down."

Now, stop the presses. Megaphone please. Attention. No Great Lakes fish-repeat-no fish are safe if one particular species gets into the Great Lakes: Asian carp.

By now you have probably read or heard the news about Asian carp wreaking havoc in the Mississippi and others rivers throughout Illinois and other Midwestern states. The wild behemoths can reach up to 90 pounds and eat almost half of their bodyweight daily. And, they have a voracious appetite for just about anything living in the waters where they swim, or rather, jump. Yes, the carp have caused injuries to people traveling along the Mississippi river because they can catapult out of the water, as high as five feet in the air, breaking noses and fishing equipment alike.

"If they get here, we may need to look for a new job," LeClair says. In essence, the Asian carp situation is the last straw when it comes to the out-right ignoring or misunderstanding of an ongoing, huge concern: that Great Lakes fish are heading toward extinction if we don't do something to take care of these endangered populations now-and fast.

SAVING THE FISH

"This issue is a huge red flag," says Sarah Stegner, chef and co-owner of Prairie Grass Café and an advocate of not only sustainable, local farming and ranching but also of fishing. "If you feel strongly about sustainability, and how food is handled from beginning to end, the natural extension of that is to be concerned about our Great Lakes fisheries. We need to put pressure on the fishing industry to be sustainable, and to support the fisheries that already are. Otherwise, we're going to run out of fish."

Stegner is just one of the various chefs, restaurateurs, commercial fisheries and others that have worked with the Shedd Aquarium on efforts to support sustainable seafood and build awareness about the urgent need to clean up and protect the Great Lakes including an educational program, aptly named, "Right Bite". Chefs in the program commit to

carrying at least one sustainable seafood item on the menu and complete a minimum of one sustainable seafood training session for their staff. In addition to Prairie Grass Café, other partner restaurants include 312 Chicago, Shaw's Crab House, Carnivale, Oceanique and Naha.

"With the Right Bite program, we partner across the seafood industry and the culinary community here to raise awareness about sustainable seafood," says Kassia  Perpich, sustainable seafood coordinator for Shedd.  e process of assessing the Great Lakes fisheries began in early 2006 through a collaboration between Shedd and Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch research team, according to Perpich. After identifying the largest commercial fisheries in the region, the duo, teaming with scientists, governmental agencies, and other organizations, developed a thoroughly researched and documented species list highlighting the safest fish to eat-meaning the most abundant, well managed and those caught or farmed in environmentally-friendly ways. The group also identified fish to avoid. Shedd went on to create a wallet card similar to Monterey Bay's sushi and sustainable seafood cards, which lists this information for diners' decision-making.

Trap-net caught Lake whitefish from Lake Michigan, farmed rainbow trout, and yellow perch from Lake Erie fall under the "best choices" category, with Lake Superior trout, lake herring, rainbow smelt, and walleye as good alternatives. Consumers and chefs should avoid lake trout from Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, according to the Right Bite card.

Lake trout, once the dominant species in the Great Lakes, nearly disappeared from the lakes, except Lake Superior by the 1960s.  According to a report on Great Lakes fish developed by Monterey Bay Aquarium, the lake trout was competing for food with the sea lamprey and other non-native, invasive species. Their depleted population remains an ongoing concern among conservationists.  Lake Superior remains the only lake where the trout are self-sustaining, and only a few commercial fisheries have the rights to fish for it.  The Shedd outlines five major causes of concern: overfishing; fishing gear by-catch; habitat destruction due to invasive species and loss of wetlands; non-sustainable fish farming, and illegal, unregulated fishing.

"Habitat loss is still a pretty big issue," says Melanie Napoleon, director of Great Lakes Conservation through the Shedd Aquarium. "Wetlands are critical to the health of any aquatic ecosystem. They're like a nursery for juvenile fish, bird chicks and water fowl babies." Sadly, over time, these precious resources have been depleted due to natural erosion, mainly due to humans wanting to drain them for commercial and recreational use.

Pollution remains another ongoing problem for the Great Lakes, Napoleon says. "Pollution that was put in the Great Lakes decades ago still needs to be cleaned up. Thankfully, President Obama approved $475million in the 2010 budget to cleanup the Great Lakes, and it will most certainly repay itself in helping to restore the fish we enjoy eating and the water we drink."

Napoleon's talking about water pollution that includes sewage overflows, litter, motor boat oil, plastics, and other debris that sicken both fish and humans. As a beachcomber myself, I've experienced this pollution first-hand and likely so have you. One morning on a trip to the Oak Street Beach with the dog, a low tide left behind row upon row of dark green algae mixed with beer cans, cigarette butts. There was a dirty sock here, rubber siding there, and empty plastic water bottles too.  It was a disgusting, gut-wrenching, and just plain sad site to see.  The Shedd Aquarium and other organizations arrange volunteer beach cleanups, but there seems to be a prevailing notion that while it's not okay to litter on the streets, it's somehow okay to do so in the water.  Despite all this doom and gloom, though, Napoleon says "the good news is things are bouncing back. People are realizing how valuable Great Lakes fish are to our quality of life. It's becoming more important to people to enjoy regional delicacies."

IN THE KITCHEN

There's something gentle and subtle about Lake Michigan whitefish. It's that way in the water, too. LeClair from Susie Q, says the fish is a little elusive, a little sly. They swim in schools, feeding at night in the cold waters along the lake floor, and they move quickly, so they can be hard to trap. Unlike chubs and smelt that will swim to the surface in 3:30

a.m. darkness, which is when LeClair's team heads out during the season, "whitefish won't even come up to the surface until it's light out.

We'll leave the dock around 6 a.m. and get in around 4 p.m.," he says.  Chef Sean Sanders, owner of Brown trout in Lincoln Square says that's precisely why he named his restaurant what he did. He opened it with his wife Nadia in May of last year. Brown trout, while not harkening from the Great Lakes, are an elusive fish too. They're hard to catch, which  makes them literally sustainable in their own right. "They can't be overfished," he says. The name goes along with his restaurant's concept of doing things the environmentally-friendly way, from a roof top garden, to a hydroponic one in the basement, recycling, composting, and of course, sourcing local foods, including Great Lakes fish.  In the kitchen, Sanders dips lake perch in flour and seasonings then tosses them in the pan to fry and crisps them up gently. The smell of something caramelizing fills the air as oil sizzles and pops in the pan.  The perch makes up one-third of his Brown trout Fish Trio, a popular small plate on the menu. It features either orange-cured brown trout or another seasonal trout, and applewood-smoked rainbow trout from Lake Superior when he can get it. He serves that alongside a salad of celery heart and fresh herbs. Depending on the season, Sanders also serves a pan-seared golden trout from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, with toasted walnuts and mint and once he prepared a rainbow trout, served whole and stuffed with parsnips, carrots, shallots, sage, and apple in a beurre blanc sauce.

Sanders seems to be winning over his guests with this repertoire, evident by filled reservation books, strong reviews and lots of Brown trout Fish Trios sold. And that's a good thing because as long as that demand for fresh, sustainable fish from the Great Lakes exists or grows stronger, the better the chance that the big fish distributors in Chicago will get the fish they want.

"We don't want to pay more than $6 a pound for the fish we get, otherwise we'll have to charge $30 a plate for it," Sanders says, "and you can't do that with Great Lakes fish, they're small, delicate freshwater fish, sometimes only 4 ounces to a filet."

Sanders also sources out sustainable fish farms for local trout because that ensures a consistent product. For the wild-caught fish, the end of the summer going into the fall presents the best time for Great Lakes fish buying. "Fish are hungry when it warms up and they want to fatten up for the winter," Sanders says.

KNOW YOUR FISHERY

Either way, Sanders' main concern when it comes to fish buying is that it's hard to know for sure if the fish he buys were caught sustainably.  Stegner agrees. "Some fisheries are better than others so it's a challenge," she says. "I may not have all the answers, but I try to do the best I can to source the fish back to where it's coming from." LeClair from Susie Q, says they're a sustainable fishery and his customers, some of whom have been with him for almost five decades, know they can trust him. First of all, he uses trap nets to catch his fish and he processes them the same day.

"We catch and clean our whitefish the same day and if we do freeze any, then they're on ice the whole time," LeClair says. "Many fishermen don't have the means to take care of the fish the way we do. We take care of our fish really well, that's why Fortune (a Chicago distributor), likes our fish so much, they'll pay quite a bit more to get it."

While LeClair oversees the boats, his daughter Jamie along with his brothers Paul, a co-owner, and Daniel work the smoking house and market back on shore in Two Rivers. Like LeClair said earlier, if it wasn't for his market, he'd be out of business by now. Aside from invasive species and unregulated sport fishing that have caused a steep population drop in his smelt and chub catch, he also faces staffing shortage issues. Icy Lake Michigan waters aren't always calm. "In the colder months, we can get 10 to 12 foot waves, and the cold isn't really as big a problem as the wind,"

LeClair says. All the tossing and turning has made a lot of his new recruits so seasick they won't come back.

"Fishing really has to be in their heart," he says. "It's hard to train someone new to do it I've found. And I've had to cut staff because our quota is down. If we keep this up, next year we'll have to pull the plug."

BOTTOM LINE

The prevailing message about the Great Lakes and fishing is-we need to clean up our lakes and beaches, stop dumping toxins in them, keep the Asian carp out, and we need to support the small fisheries just as much as we have supported local, small farmers throughout the Midwest.  "It's like the whole European culture, wanting to eat what's local and what comes out of your own waters," Stegner says. "If we all take an interest in our lakes being cleaned up and handled correctly, and the more educated the public and chefs are about sustainable Great Lakes seafood, the better chance we're going to keep enjoying the same fish 15 years from now."

A healthy Great Lakes eco-system and demand for sustainable fish can keep Steve LeClair and his Susie Q team on those choppy, icy Lake Michigan waters fishing for decades to come.

Amelia Levin is a freelance writer and certified chef through Kendall College. When not swimming in or eating fish from Lake Michigan, she's busy covering Chicago's culinary and restaurant scene through various publications and her food "e-zine" www.ChicagoCulinarian.com.