


University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Great Lakes at a Crossroads: Salmon crowned king, but its reign is wobbly

Any doubts Howard Tanner had about whether a hatchery-raised crop of Pacific salmon could find a home in the freshwater of the Great Lakes evaporated just months after the first class of finger-sized cohos were planted in Lake Michigan. The fish began their lives in a Michigan hatchery in the winter of 1965 and were raised by human hands until their release in April 1966. Pacific coho typically have a three-year life cycle spending the first year and a half in the rivers and streams in which they hatch before descending to the ocean for about 18 months and then returning to those native streams in fall of their third year to spawn and die. This meant the first cohos Tanner planted should...