Yellow Perch

Ruffe

At the request of the Minnesota Sea Grant Program, Gary Czypinski of the Ashland National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO) completed a review of a ruffe research proposal submitted by Raymond Newman, Professor, Dept. of Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota-St. Paul.  Using 16 years of field data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey-Lake Superior Biological Station, Dr. Newman proposes to determine if ruffe density or biomass affected the growth of yellow perch in the St. Louis River System (SLRS), Minnesota/Wisconsin.  The suggested impacts of ruffe on yellow perch and other native fishes in the SLRS became controversial, since all investigations to date have been laboratory based, and field observations drawn from collected abundance data in the SLRS were challenged.  If funded by Minnesota Sea Grant, this proposed research would set a benchmark, because it would confirm or deny the effects of ruffe on yellow perch growth in the field.