LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – It’s good news for lake trout restoration efforts. The Lake Superior Committee (LSC) of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission announced Lake Superior’s lake trout population is now fully restored.

A feat decades in the making.

The committee said in the 1950s and 1960s, lake trout levels sank to an all-time low because of invasive sea lampreys and overfishing. Thirty years prior, the lake trout population could support four million pounds of harvest numbers. That number went as low as 210,000 pounds in 1964.

A combination of fish management strategies.

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LSC says that a mixture of stocking trout, controlling lampreys and other fish management strategies have contributed to the comeback of the lake trout population. In addition, LSC estimates the current abundance of naturally reproduced lake trout is at or above the best estimates of abundance prior to the sea lamprey invasion from the 1930s.

It’s an accomplishment that did not happen overnight. “It required an unwavering commitment to a shared vision across multiple generations of fishery managers from Indigenous, provincial, state, and federal agencies,” said Ethan Baker, chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. “It is undoubtedly one of the most successful stories of native species restoration in the world. Lucky for us, we have a front-row seat.”