GOAL OF 10,000 SIGNATURES BY JANUARY 20th, 2023!!

The Coalition to protect Michigan Resources has until January 20th, 2023, to file objections to the Tribal and State of Michigan  Proposed agreement to expand gill nets.

***NOTE:  It has come to our attention that once people are signing this petition change.org is asking people to 'chip in' money. Please be aware that this money is used by change.org to promote the petition, which will help it reach more people but THIS MONEY DOES NOT GO TO CPMR. If you would like to donate money to this please donate directly to the coalition’s PayPal account here: https://protectmiresources.com/donate/

The Coalition to Protect Michigan Resources is serious about protecting sport fishing on the Great Lakes, its tributaries, inland lakes, and waterways. Our mission is to work with the US Government, Tribes, and the State of Michigan as an “amicus curiae” in the federal court case governing Tribal fishing rights in the 1836 Treaty areas. Many of our members were involved with negotiations that resulted in the 1985 Consent Agreement, the 2000 Consent Decree governing the Great Lakes and the 2007 Inland Consent Decree.

After more than 37 years of lake trout rehabilitation, increasing natural reproduction and attempts to preserve the fisheries of the Great Lakes, those fisheries are now at risk. An 1836 Treaty grants 5 sovereign tribes in Michigan the right to half of the fishery and the right to commercially fish. The state of Michigan recreational anglers and commercial fishers are granted the other 50% of the fishery in the treaty waters of the northern Great Lakes. In 2000, the State and tribes agreed to a plan of lake trout rehabilitation in which the state of Michigan bought the trap net boats and gear of Michigan commercial fishers and gave those boats and gear to the tribal fishers to use. In trade, the tribal fishers agreed to give up the non-selective large mesh gill nets that made lake trout rehabilitation impossible. The result? Natural reproduction happened in parts of the Great Lakes and is expanding. The 2000 agreement with the tribes also included exclusive zones for fishing by tribal fishers and other zones where tribal commercial fishing would be restricted and recreational fishers could fish without gear and harvest conflicts.

This agreement has served the resource well for the last 22 years. Now, the tribes and the Michigan DNR are about to agree to proposals to undue all of that progress. The agreement being considered would allow MILLIONS of feet of gill nets to be fished again. These proposals are the 1st time the expansion of gill nets for commercial fishing have been agreed to by these governments in decades. Gill nets are non-selective and will catch and kill all fish that swim into them. By expanding this non-selective gear to recreational fishing zones where there haven’t been any gill nets for over 37 years and where recreational anglers fish, this gear will harm natural reproduction and the recreational fishery.

We need your support in protecting the Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior from these non-selective, destructive gill nets. Governments all over the world have moved away from gill nets to selective fishing gear. Please sign on and let the leaders of the State of Michigan and the Tribes and the Federal government know you want to save the fishery of the Great Lakes now and for generations to come.