December 09, 2024

Howard A. Learner

Good Great Lakes Ecological News: The Iconic Lake Trout Recovers

The lake trout rehabilitation efforts succeeded, and this iconic Great Lakes fish species has fully recovered in Lake Superior.

After nearly being wiped out in the 1950s and 1960s, the iconic lake trout has now “fully recovered” in most of Lake Superior according to the Lake Superior Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

“The decline and near extinction of native lake trout resulted in a drastic change to the Great Lakes ecosystem and devastated the region’s economy,” said Ethan Baker, chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. “The recovery of this keystone species from near extirpation to the healthy, self-sustaining population was achieved through a multi-decade and multi-jurisdictional Herculean effort that required an unprecedented amount of coordination, resources, and commitment.”

The commercial harvest of lake trout was about 4 million pounds annually in Lake Superior between 1920 and 1950. By 1964, that declined to 210,000 pounds.

Why? Parasitic invasive sea lampreys and overfishing.

Rebuilding Lake Trout Populations

Here’s how that problem was addressed over the past 60 years. Canada and the United States formed the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which worked to control sea lampreys, restrict lake trout harvesting, and stock lake trout until they were successfully reproducing.  The lake trout rehabilitation efforts succeeded, and this iconic Great Lakes fish species has fully recovered in Lake Superior.

It takes a lot of dedicated and effective work by government, non-governmental organizations, and private sector initiatives to chalk up the ecological recovery of lake trout. Like the successful protection of eagles (from the precipice of extirpation) along the Upper Mississippi River, these ecological efforts take time and collaboration. The Midwest has achieved real progress.

Let’s recognize this victory and use it as a springboard for more ecological progress in the Great Lakes.