Each year, the terms of the 2000 Consent Decree require the Modeling Subcommittee of the Technical Fisheries Committee to generate recommended safe harvest limits for the lake trout fisheries in the 1836 treaty waters of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron.  

John Netto, Green Bay Fisheries Resource Office, worked closely with Jory Jonas and Shawn Sitar of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to update the Statistical Catch at Age assessment models for the Michigan waters of Lakes Michigan and Superior. 

Each model is designed to represent a region in each lake, consisting of one or more management units. 

Four regional assessment models are used in Lake Michigan and three in Lake Superior. 

The preliminary results from this year's assessments were presented at the MSC meeting in Roscommon, Michigan.  At this meeting, the biologists presented changes made to the models, discussed the results of ongoing research, and reviewed the current year's stock assessment results. 

The committee, which consists of state, tribal and federal representatives, reviewed the methods applied, discussed alternatives, and accepted the results of this year’s assessment by consensus.