The Turning Point
Sixty years ago this December, the first batch of coho salmon eggs arrived in Michigan from the west coast, forever changing the Great Lakes and creating one of the most spectacular freshwater sport fisheries in the world.
December may not be the height of boating season on the Great Lakes, but this December marks a very special anniversary for boaters across the entire watershed. Exactly 60 years ago, a shipment of 1 million coho salmon eggs arrived in Michigan — an event that forever changed the Great Lakes for anglers and boaters alike.
But 1964 wasn’t the first time Pacific salmon had arrived here. Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario and other Great Lakes jurisdictions had begun experimenting with introducing Pacific salmon to the big lakes as early as 1866, as stocks of native species declined. However, the water quality issues that impacted native fish also precluded the introduced salmon from becoming established, and those early stocking efforts were abandoned and forgotten by the turn of the century.
The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950s changed everything. The newly completed locks on the St. Lawrence River, along with newly expanded locks on the Welland Canal, not only enabled ocean-going ships free passage throughout the Great Lakes, they opened the door to the arrival of two invasive species which each played key roles in changing the ecosystem forever.
Parasitic sea lamprey — eel-like creatures sporting sucker mouths lined with sharp teeth — found their way into the lakes and feasted on native lake trout. They promptly spread throughout the system and virtually wiped out lake trout populations in all but the most remote pockets of Lake Superior. Coincident with their arrival came vast schools of alewife, a cigar-sized herring which, in an environment now lacking deep water predators to eat them, bred like crazy and became the dominant species of fish, at one point representing more than 90% of all aquatic life in the lakes. Mass die-offs of alewife each spring following their annual spawning cycle left shorelines clogged with tons of dead, decaying fish, with cities using steam shovels and bulldozers to combat a mounting health hazard. Clearly, something had to be done.
Bold vision
By the mid-1960s federal lamprey control programs began bearing fruit, making it possible to begin restoring Great Lakes fish populations. The turning point came in 1964 when a fisheries biologist named Dr. Howard Tanner began working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Tanner knew that the only way to bring alewife populations into check was to re-establish a population of predators to feed upon them. Native lake trout were the logical choice, but their slow growth rate meant it could take decades before anyone knew if the plan was working. Tanner was aware of prior, unsuccessful attempts to introduce Pacific salmon to the Great Lakes, and he felt that this time, with the water stuffed with prey fish, the results could be different. Unlike slow-growing lake trout, coho salmon from the Pacific mature by their third birthday, so it would not take long to gauge the success of his plan. Measuring those results would be as simple as observing how many adult fish returned to their original stocking sites to spawn each fall. Tanner wouldn’t have to go hunting far offshore looking for evidence of success, it would swim right back to him.
Beyond that, coho enjoy a global reputation as great sport fish, known as hard fighters and delicious table fare, meaning Tanner’s alewife control program could also create an all-new fishing opportunity. A successful salmon introduction could boost tourism and inject fresh money into small towns all along the
lakeshore. What’s more, because coho grow so quickly and live near the surface of the lake rather than down on the bottom, they were far less likely to accumulate concentrations of chemical contaminants than lake trout of equivalent size and be safe to eat — an important consideration given the state of the Great Lakes ecosystem at the time.
After receiving the requisite approvals, Tanner arranged to acquire one million coho salmon eggs from Oregon. Those eggs arrived in Michigan in December 1964.
(Main) A coho salmon catch in 1969. All photos courtesy of Michigan DNR
Coho fever in Michigan in 1968
Dr. Howard Tanner stocking the very first coho in the Platte River in April 1966
Coho catch from Lake Michigan
Dr. Howard Tanner with Lake Michigan coho in 1968
Fishing for coho on Lake Michigan in 1968
Coho salmon eggs
A fishery is born
Some 18 months after the eggs arrived, with the then finger-sized salmon ready to be released into the wild, Tanner himself freed the very first coho into Michigan’s Platte River in April 1966. By the fall of that year, a small number of early-maturing salmon returned to their stocking sites and began showing up on angler’s fishing lines, impressing with their ferocity and fight.
By the time the first large returns of fully grown adults returned to the Platte and other tributary streams in the fall of 1967 — some now weighing more than 15 pounds — the hard-fighting coho had attracted the attention of anglers from across the region. Once sleepy lakeside towns suddenly bustled with activity, motels filled to capacity and restaurants began operating on extended hours as “salmon fever” descended across Michigan.
Witnessing the substantial economic impact of the new fishery, other states promptly launched their own coho programs. Tackle companies worked around the clock to keep up with booming orders for new gear, and boat dealers in the region saw huge demand for larger vessels capable of fishing farther offshore. Salmon derbies began to spring up all across the lakes, huge charter fishing fleets grew out of nowhere and intense media coverage drove more and more people to the region.
Today, the coho salmon that launched the Great Lakes fishing boom have been joined by larger Chinook salmon and smaller pink salmon, injecting some further muscle into what is already considered one of the most important recreational fisheries on earth. Alewife populations have been brought down to sustainable levels, and self-sustaining populations of coho, Chinook and pink salmon have developed in multiple areas across the watershed. Even native lake trout, stocked alongside the salmon for decades, have finally begun to show signs of recovery.
The impact of the salmon program on Great Lakes boating cannot be overstated. In the six decades since those first coho arrived in Michigan, municipal, state and federal spending on boating infrastructure projects in the region has soared, creating new launch ramps, docks, upgraded harbors and facilities for boaters on both sides of the international border. Boat builders continue to enjoy strong sales of large offshore vessels designed with salmon fishing in mind. Fishing tackle companies building all manner of specialized salmon equipment continue to thrive, and the salmon fishery remains a key driver of tourism across the Great Lakes. And, even more importantly, the salmon have reconnected hundreds of thousands of people with the lakes and made millions more aware of the need to protect healthy aquatic ecosystems.
So let us celebrate the 60th anniversary of the coho’s arrival in December 1964 — a fish that forever changed the Great Lakes and made us all the better for it.
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