Representative Cam Cavitt says he is “not anti-fishery” (“Cavitt explains his DNR vote” in The Alpena News, Sept. 18, 2025). We hope he is right, but he agreed to a budget plan that would force a $5.4 million dollar cut on the Fisheries Division. The DNR has been strangled financially by the legislature’s failure to increase license fees since 2014, or to provide them with a significant allocation of general fund (tax) dollars, while rising costs have eaten into the DNR’s operations. Because of these long-standing funding issues, the DNR was already making reductions of 30% in their operations as the Michigan House further slashed their budget.

We have spoken with Mr. Cavitt about the repairs needed for Cornwall Dam, and we know he cares about maintaining that great bass and bluegill fishery. Mr. Cavitt complains that “the DNR does not want to manage them (dams) anymore” at the same time as the Fisheries Division has allocated another half million dollars of its limited license revenues to the restoration of Cornwall Dam in Cavitt’s own district. This was money that the Fisheries Division does not really have, but recognizing the importance of this impoundment, they took money from other projects. Expect further reductions elsewhere.

Turning to his comments about commercial fishery management, Mr. Cavitt is mistaken about more than one issue. He asserted that the DNR wanted to get rid of commercial fishing. “They want it gone. There’s only three licensed commercial fishermen on the Great Lakes.” Mr. Cavitt gets two things wrong here. First, there are 45 commercial fishing licenses on the Great Lakes with 18 reporting harvests in 2024 and seven of those licenses each reported harvesting over 100,000 pounds of fish last year. Secondly, the Fisheries Division has been an advocate for commercial fishing (Google “Commercial Fishing Michigan DNR”), spending far more than commercial licenses and fees generate in revenue to assess commercial fishing stocks and manage the fishing industry. The legislature has provided no general funds (tax dollars) for this work and has not increased commercial fishing license fees since 1968; thus, the DNR’s Commercial Fish management, research and enforcement activities annually receive a 99% subsidy from recreational license fees. Recreational fishers are basically footing the entire cost of the Great Lakes Commercial fishery. To put this into perspective, in 2024, the state-licensed commercial fishery harvested over 1.8 million pounds of state fishery resources worth over $4.6 million and paid less than $8,000 in license fees to do so.

It has been nothing less than tragic to watch lake whitefish, the prime target of commercial fishing, decline dramatically in lakes Michigan and Huron as quagga mussels interrupt their life cycles and deprive their young of food they need to survive. I wish Mr. Cavitt would lead in seeking the tax dollars necessary to fund research into why whitefish are in such steep decline and potential remedies. Instead, he uses this sad story as an excuse to bash the DNR, and in the process, to misinform his constituents. The Michigan 106th House District includes many coastal communities, fishing-based resorts, industries, anglers, and commercial fishers that depend on vibrant, productive fisheries. We need our representative to give these precious resources the priority they deserve.

Jim Johnson and Frank Krist are members of the Lake Huron Citizens Fisheries Advisory Committee.