August 19, 2003

Messrs. Payer and Hirsch,

Recently I received a importation/stocking permit approved by Mr. Goeman for longear sunfish.  Notes made by Mr. Goeman highlighted another problem with my fish farm license.  He restricted the stocking to the only pond left with non-indigenous licensing.  It seems that Mr. Goeman has removed longear sunfish from the indigenous only licensed ponds.  That is incorrect.

Longear sunfish are found in my watershed and therefore indigenous.  In fact several years ago the MN DNR Fisheries sold me longear broodfish collected in my watershed.  He should know the facts before he makes a decision that impacts my farm.  I have personally seen YOY longears in the Pine River below the Crosslake dam.  This gives them access to the Mississippi River from the Grand Rapids dam to the Gulf of Mexico and all connecting lakes and streams.  Mr. Goeman personally approved the unrestricted importation and stocking of longear sunfish from the same source in 2001.

This is only one example of the continued erratic behavior of Mr. Goeman  

One year he correctly approves all my ponds unconditionally according to Minnesota statute and then years later, a month after I filed the ethics complaint against the Fisheries Research Manager, reverses his decision. 

One year he unconditionally approves a permit to import fish and then two years later incorrectly restricts a permit from the same source. 

He rejects a permit in 2001 because he says the ponds are in the 25-year floodplain and yet 2 years later admits there is no documentation that the ponds are in the 25-year floodplain.  Then the reason for the rejection changes to the threat that heavy rainfall (18+") could overfill the levee type ponds. 

Then Mr. Goeman refuses to license a new pond designed to maintain a minimum 24" of freeboard for all Minnesota species because of the threat of 24+" rainfall overfilling the levee type pond.  

Mr. Goeman also incorrectly stated that I needed his permission to sell any of my fish in Minnesota. 

My questions to the two of you is why are you allowing him to behave like this and how much longer are the two of you going to allow this behavior?

Sincerely,
John Reynolds

Midwest Fish and Crayfish

26385 County Road 3

Merrifield MN 56465

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