GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Reports of a less than stellar take of chinook salmon this year have at least one organization concerned over the future of the Lake Michigan fishery.

Members of the Michigan Steelhead and Salmon Fishermen’s Association contend a collapse is nearing - potentially within the next two years - and they’re urging the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to act now.

Dennis Eade, executive director of the MSSFA, said the continued decline of baitfish in the lake has led to an imbalance in the predator and prey ratio as it pertains to chinook salmon and their food of choice, the alewife.

Eade is concerned the mounting pressure on the baitfish could cause a chinook collapse similar to what Lake Huron experienced in the early 2000s.

“Fishing was extremely spotty this year,’ Eade said. “I think (the DNR) would agree that the forage base has been decimated. It’s a bottom-up pressure as well as a top-down pressure. We have too many predators in the system.

“The DNR doesn’t want to exacerbate an already unbalanced system, so they’ve cut back stocking over the past three to five years. We’re asking the DNR to look outside the box and look for ways to take action now before it collapses.”

The effects of a fishery collapse would mimic the Lake Huron situation, Eade said. Bait shops would be boarded up, charter services and guides would be out of business and he speculates hotels near popular fishing spots could close.

Todd Kalish, the Lake Michigan Basin Coordinator for the Michigan DNR, said he appreciates the concern from the steel headers group but that he doesn't necessarily share the dim forecast. Kalish has worked closely with the group in the past, but he needs to have all the information before making a drastic change in management.

Information from a variety of sources is collected and disseminated by an organization called the Lake Michigan Committee, a group comprised of the natural resources agencies in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois as well as the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority. This group, which Kalish is on, makes decisions about the fishery and does so after all information from the previous year has been collected.

“In 2013, we cut chinook stocking by 50 percent statewide to help control the predator/prey ratio, and that was agreed upon by all of the entities,” Kalish said. “We also agreed that if any additional stockings were proposed, we had to agree upon that.”

Eade said he appreciates all that the DNR has done but is hoping they’ll be more forward-thinking.

“The DNR might feel that the fishery can seek its own level but they fail to realize the impact that a loss of salmon fishery will have on the tourism industry in this state,” Eade said. "We saw the tourism industry decimated on the east side of the state with the chinook fishery collapse in Lake Huron. We don’t want that to happen on this side of the state.

"We would like to see the DNR take positive initiatives. We want them to say ‘it’s too big of an issue to let happen, let’s try this.’ And at the same time, let’s focus on stocking a species that could take the place of the chinook.”

Two of those species are steelhead and Atlantic salmon, Eade said.

“Both the diet of the atlantic and steelhead are much different than the chinook,” Eade said. “They live on insects, gobies and spiny water fleas. Zebra and quagga mussels are filtering the water of all the plankton and that’s what the alewife feed on so they’re in decline.”

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Eade would also like the DNR to consider stocking cisco, also known as herring, to help prop up the chinook population.

“Cisco are surviving extremely well in the Traverse City basin and we also have a very sustainable cisco population in Lake Charlevoix,” Eade said.

Southwest Michigan Steelheaders vice predisent Scott Stoney said the lake is an evolving fishery so plans have to move with it.

"A lot of people are saying we’re blaming the DNR," Stoney said. "We’re not blaming the DNR. We’re working with the DNR. They’re our greatest ally.

"We know how long it takes to get the state moving and we’re worried that if we wait too long it could force a complete crash."

Kalish agreed that the baitfish population has diminished in previous years but said he doesn’t have numbers on 2014 yet.

“Some of the data we use are the trawl and acoustic surveys and those give us an idea of alewife populations and we don’t have that yet,” Kalish said. “We also don’t have the charter boat catch numbers, so it’s a little bit early in the process to make a really good assumption of what’s going to happen.”

When the group meets in the spring of 2015 they’ll have all that data, Kalish said.

“We have some of the most diverse and greatest minds working on this in the Great Lakes Basin,” Kalish said. “One of our common goals is to sustain diverse fisheries so I think we’ll use all the tools we have to help sustain that fishery.”

Follow Cory Olsen on Twitter or email him at colsen@mlive.com