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Fishery Bulletin 105(2) 



but prices quickly fall as the ice clears from the Great 

 Lakes. ^ In North America, the fishery in Lake Michigan 

 (near Milwaukee, Wisconsin) crashed by 2000 and most 

 perch taken in the past from the Great Lakes are pres- 

 ently taken from Lake Erie."* '' '' 



Lake Erie itself is divided into four quota zones across 

 both U.S. and Canadian waters, of which Zone 2 (com- 

 prising the west-central basins) has the largest U.S. 

 allowable quota.* ■"'■'' Most of those perch are landed and 

 processed in Wheatley, Ontario, where the largest pro- 

 cessing plants are located. "''' Current landed prices for 

 North American yellow perch are about Can $2.00/lb, 

 whereas the market price for processed fish runs about 

 Can $8-9/lb.* Eurasian perch have been sold in North 

 American markets for over 20 years, and presently are 

 cheaper than North American yellow perch, selling for 

 Can $2-3/lb.* Thus, restaurants in the Great Lakes 

 area that advertise yellow perch "fish fries" may be 

 unlikely to offer economical all-you-can-eat dinners and 

 stay in business without imported Eurasian perch. Our 

 results illustrate that use of mtDNA sequencing is an 

 economic and effective method to identify the species in 



5 Baldwin, N. S., R. W. Saalfeld, M. R. Dochoda, H. J. Buettner, 

 and R. L. Eshenroder. 2002. Commercial Fish Production 

 in the Great Lakes 1867-2000. Website: http;//www.glfc. 

 org/databases/commercial/commerc.php (accessed on 26 July 

 2006). 



^ Bader, T. J. 2005. Personal commun. Ohio Division of 

 Wildlife, Fairport Fish Research Unit, 1190 High St., Fair- 

 port Harbor, OH, USA 44077. 



fillets for perch (and other species), even in the case of 

 genetic material that has been deep fried. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank T. Johnson (Ontario Ministry of Natural 

 Resources) and T. Bader (Ohio Division of Wildlife) 

 for information regarding the Lake Erie perch fishery 

 and the importation of Eurasian yellow perch. We also 

 thank R. Knight (Ohio Division of Wildlife) for pro- 

 viding valuable comments on the manuscript, along 

 with Great Lakes Genetic Laboratory graduate students 

 A. Haponski and M. Neilson and research technician 

 R. Lohner for help. This study was supported by grants 

 to C. Stepien from the Lake Erie Protection Fund no. 

 00-15, NOAA Sea Grant no. R/LR-7 through Ohio Sea 

 Grant, and USEPA CR-83281401-0. RMS was supported 

 as a postdoctoral researcher in the Great Lakes Genetics 

 Laboratory. This is contribution number 2007-04 from 

 the Lake Erie Center. 



Literature cited 



Billington, N. 



1993. Genetic variation in Lake Erie yellow perch 

 iPerca flavescens) demonstrated by mitochondrial DNA 

 analysis. J. Fish Biol. 43:941-943. 

 Craig, J. F. 



2000. Percid fishes: systematics, ecology, and exploita- 

 tion, 352 p. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK. 



