Ohio Division of Wildlife outlines Lake Erie management, invasive carp response and local access funds in Lorain County meeting

John Navarro, temporarily the fish chief for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, described the agency’s Lake Erie and inland fisheries work and invasive-species response during a presentation at a Lorain County meeting.

Navarro said Lake Erie drives much of Ohio’s fishing activity and that the work includes research, harvest monitoring, stocking and interjurisdictional coordination to sustain sport and commercial fisheries.

Navarro told the meeting that the division runs research units at Sandusky and Fairport, uses gill nets, bottom trawls and electrofishing to track populations, and conducts creel surveys — interviews with anglers at boat ramps — to capture harvest information that helps set regulations and stocking strategies. “Lake Erie is about the size of Vermont,” Navarro said, underscoring the scale of the area the division manages and the need for standardized sampling.

He outlined tools and programs: a new research vessel planned for Sandusky (to be named RV Walleye), hatchery stocking from Ohio…