There is more to concern yourself about bait than whether the fish will go for it. You ought to consider whether your bait is aquatic nuisance species (ANS)-free. In fact, in stores one day, you may find bait certified ANS-free, similar to organic certification on food.

ANS include a collection of 160 species of plants and animals that damage waterways in states around the Great Lakes. Bait producers, fish farmers, and public fish hatchery personnel understand that their professions can spread ANS and might be hurt by an inability to ensure that stocks are ANS-free.

To combat this, The Great Lakes Sea Grant Network has adapted a standardized food-preparation approach originally developed by the Pillsbury Corporation to prevent contamination in food products intended for use in the U. S. space program. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point guidelines, or HACCP can help bait and aquaculture industries tackle harmful exotic species.

The ANS-HACCP approach identifies pathways through which ANS and non-target aquatic species could enter aquaculture and baitfish operations. It also includes methods to prevent accidental transfer of these species and verification plans.

"This process could help eliminate accidental introductions through stocking programs," said Bob Pitman, invasive species coordinator of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-Region 2. His concern about stocking was driven home last year when a gizzard shad was collected in Lake Powell, Utah. Shad might have been accidentally introduced upstream over four years earlier when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stocked Morgan Lake with largemouth bass.

"The ANS-HACCP program allows bait and aquaculture industry personnel to identify and monitor critical points within their own facility through which exotic species may enter the final product," said Pat Charlebois, biological resource specialist with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG). Wild baitfish harvesters and fish farmers, both private and public, who raise baitfish or fish for stocking can develop ANS-HACCP plans that are unique to their operations.

"The HACCP guidelines provide a means for bait fish wholesalers to be proactive in ensuring that exotic species and other non-bait species do not contaminate their bait products," added Charlebois, who is also affiliated with University of Illinois, Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Natural History Survey.

Unlike Minnesota and Michigan, Illinois and Indiana commercial bait harvesters are not specifically restricted from harvesting bait from water bodies infected with aquatic nuisance species.

Those that collect their own bait should not release unwanted fish or water into different waterbodies. The bait may contain nuisance species and the water may also, in the form of microscopic zebra mussel veligers and invasive waterfleas.

To get the word out, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has widely distributed a HACCP training manual (developed and published by the Minnesota and Michigan Sea Grant Programs) to wholesale minnow dealers and state hatcheries. IISG has created and is distributing "Protect Our Waters--Don't Dump Bait" stickers to bait dealers and interested anglers. These waterproof stickers serve as a reminder on bait buckets and tackle boxes to dispose of bait rather than release it into natural waterways.

For more information about HACCP, please visit the Minnesota Sea Grant.  The bait sticker is available from our Free Products Page.  Both the manual and the stickers are free.

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The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program is one of 30 National Sea Grant College Programs. Created by Congress in 1966, Sea Grant combines university, government, business and industry expertise to address coastal and Great Lakes needs. Funding is provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U. S. Department of Commerce, Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Irene Miles
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
376 NSRC
1101 W. Peabody Dr.
Urbana, Il 61801
Phone:  217-333-8055
Fax:  217-333-8046
miles@illinois.edu