The man with a salmon plan.

Licensed to manage with audacity, Tanner thought a better option for the Great Lakes would be Pacific salmon, tailor-made to feast on species like the alewife — prey fish that swim by the thousands in massive schools high up in the water column.

Salmon feed with such ferocity that they can grow to 40 pounds during their three-year life cycle. It can take a lumbering lake trout 40 or 50 years to reach that weight, carrying much of it as belly fat.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/The-man-with-the-salmon-plan-b99397807z1-284550491.html

Pretty interesting read. I’d rather have lake trout for dinner than salmon though. lol

The other day I saw that Michigan is considering stocking Atlantic Salmon instead of Pacific Salmon. I surely do like Kings, but the chance to catch an Atlantic Salmon in a river is pretty intriguing as well.

When WI ran the pilot on Atlantics in Lake MI back in the late 80’s, there was a couple of issues that came up. I don’t remember all the specifics, but I think part was the random return locations.

Also, the largest issue now for Lk MI is the alewive population being so low. The salmon definitely did their part in the clean up efforts on this invasive species….

I am not aware of any plans to stock Lake Michigan with Atlantic Salmon but there is an effort underway to stock Big Green Lake with Atlantics. I believe the Environmental Impact Statement has been completed and it’s all but a done deal.

http://dnr.wi.gov/news/Weekly/article/?id=3059

There is currently a very interesting Atlantic salmon fishery up at Sault Ste Marie on the St. Mary’s River. It’s river fishing, maybe not exactly as most would think of it, but they do catch some nice fish up there. And on the fly!

I strongly suspect that what drives the salmon direction in the Great Lakes is always going to be down to what the tourism industry wants, not what anglers want. Now that pac salmon are “normal”, the appetite for change is going to be very limited, especially for funding what would essentially be a 25 year experiment.

Grouse

Thought it was super interesting as well Dave. Haven’t had the chance to pick up today’s paper and read the final installment yet though. I just cant believe that essentially one guy was responsible for salmon ever being in the great lakes to begin with! Something like that would never happen today. I guess back then, they just kinda “went for it”….

I thought this was an interesting quote.

And will it even matter if we fail to close the doors to the next invasion?

Yeah I don’t think anyone can just wing it and see what happens these days. (probably a good thing) It seems to have run a good course in Tanner’s case.

As far as letting things run their course with the next invasion I’m not sure I can buy into that. I guess it would have to depend on what’s invading.

The plan to stock Big Green with Atlantic Salmon has been tabled for more study:

http://dnr.wi.gov/news/weekly/article/print.asp?id=3167