Was it right that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources cut Chinook Salmon stockings by almost 70% in Lake Michigan? Yes it was the right that the DNR reduced Chinook Salmon stockings. In the 1960s, a species of baitfish called alewife invaded the Great Lakes and started to die off by the millions due to overpopulation. In 1967, the DNR began planting Chinook Salmon, a prolific open water predator, to control the alewife population. In the process, the DNR created one of the best sport fisheries in the world. A fishery capable of bringing billions of dollars a year to the Michigan economy.
In recent years the alewife population declined with the last three years being the lowest on record. The DNR had to act fast in order to avoid having the fishery crash, like if did in Lake Huron. The DNR reduced the Chinook Salmon stockings. Reasons the DNR did the right thing is; the alewives will hopefully rebound, Chinook Salmon are not as useful to the lake as other species, and there will be more food for other game fish. Chinook Salmon, or King Salmon, originate from the Pacific Ocean where they spend their lives feasting on herring.
When DNR brought over the savage fish to stock Lake Michigan, it was expected that they would do the same with Alewife, since it too is a species of herring. These great fish spend their lives in Lake Michigan swimming miles and miles a day looking for baitfish, particularly alewives which school up in open water. This makes them an easy target for Chinook Salmon. Chinook Salmon grow fast, reaching 30+ pounds in the first 4 years. They have to eat a lot to accommodate their size. According to the 2013 Michigan DNR Annual Lake Michigan Chinook Salmon Diet Evaluation, “their diet was 98% alewives”.
The evaluation also shows that there is less big alewives so Chinook Salmon are eating more little ones which greatly affects the alewife population as well as future populations. Chinook Salmon also have not adapted to a new food source in Lake Michigan- the Round Goby. According to Paul Smith, who works for the Wisconsin DNR, “The biomass of Alewives is lower than the biomass of Round gobies in Lake Michigan. Round Gobies have been found in the stomachs of all game fish in Lake Michigan. Since 1999, the DNR has found only two gobies in the stomachs of Chinook Salmon.
Brown Trout, Steelhead and even Whitefish have adapted to gobies and Lake Trout are even being said to taste better since they have now adapted and feed heavily on Gobies. Chinook Salmon are not as useful to the lake as other species. The diet of the Chinook Salmon is not varied so they put a lot of pressure on the Alewife population. Other species such as Brown Trout distribute the pressure among the baitfish species and even smaller game fish. A report put out by Paul Smith in the article titled Status quo for chinook stocking, cuts for trout he explains that the other trout and salmon species leave less of an impact on the forage base.
It takes 2. 2 Brown Trout, 2. 3 Lake Trout, 2. 4 Steelhead, or 3. 2 Coho Salmon of the same size to equal the effect of one Chinook Salmon on the forage base. Again, the Chinook Salmon do very little in cleaning up the population of the invasive Round Gobies and even the Eurasian Ruffle compared to the other game fish. Chinook Salmon just are not very useful to the lake. By reducing the stockings of Chinook Salmon, the other sought after game fish of the trout and salmon species have less competition for food.
With their being nearly 70% less Chinooks, the Alewife population will hopefully rebound and during this time there will be an abundance of food for the other game fish. Anglers have also noticed a size difference in the last couple years with Chinook Salmon. The average size of a Chinook Salmon in the fall of 2016 and 2015 were much bigger than the Fall of previous years. That is being contributed by less competition for food. I noticed that in the fall of 2016, the year that many fish over thirty pounds were taken, there was a huge abundance of alewives around.
Way more than the previous couple of years. When you reduce competition among a species, the individuals of the population become bigger. A good analogy of this would be putting a hundred frogs in a container with one hundred flies. There is more competition for food whereas if you put twenty five frogs in a container with one hundred flies. The frogs will be bigger in the second container than the frogs in the first container because there is more food available to a smaller population. We will hopefully be seeing bigger fish in the near future.
With the stocking cuts we are even hoping to see stronger returns of other migratory fish to make up for the loss of Chinook Salmon. As Eric Hataaja said, “This year has been one of the best years for big fish. ” But not enough time has passed to link these big fish to the Chinook Salmon cuts. What about the charter fishing industry? People flock from all over the country to pay to have someone take them out and fish for the trout and salmon Lake Michigan has with Chinook Salmon being the top on the list. People make their living off of charter fishing.
The charter fishing is far from becoming a thing of the past. I spoke with the Grand Haven Creel Counter Joe Maka who said the charter captains are turning to other species to keep customers coming back. Joe counted over 5000 steelhead and nearly 7000 Lake Trout were caught in the summer of 2016, a big increase over previous years. The DNR would not let a billion dollar fishing industry crash. Rest assured, there will always be Chinook Salmon in Lake Michigan. The fishing may not be as good as it was 20 years ago or even 10 years ago but you can still expect to catch Chinook Salmon in Lake Michigan.