John Levanen / FLICKR
In a scathing letter, several Michigan legislators urged the state Department of Natural Resources to renew all commercial fishing licenses and permits from 2020.
That’s after the DNR announced new restrictions that close the fishery for part of the year and limit the depth where fishers can catch whitefish to 80 feet.
“The whole industry is out of business at that 80 feet,” Dennis VanLandschoot, of VanLandschoot & Sons Fish Market in Munising, told IPR News earlier this month. “We won’t even put our boats in the water.”
These changes would not affect tribal fishers, whose fishing rights are guaranteed under federal treaty.