LANSING — Lake Michigan whitefish populations are on a steady decline in recent years, causing fears for the future of the species.
Data from the Department of Natural Resources shows the amount of whitefish caught by anglers has more than halved in just the last 12 years.
“If we don’t do something, then the future is going to be grim for white fish,” said Randy Claramunt, fisheries chief for the DNR.
In 2011, commercial and sport fishers harvested over 5.2 million pounds of Lake Michigan whitefish. In 2023, anglers brought in just 2.3 million pounds, representing the largest drop since the 1980s.
“I think the long term outlook is pretty bleak for whitefish, at least in Lake Michigan” said Archie Martell, fisheries division manager for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. “I think the livelihood of some of the commercial fishermen are going to be severely depressed, whether they can stay in the industry or not.”
Paul Ripple, biological services director for the Bay Mills Indian Community, says that whitefish hold cultural and economic significance for the tribe.
“There’s not a family in this community that isn’t directly or indirectly affected by commercial fishing,” he said. “When the major commercial species is suffering like it is in Huron and Michigan, that affects literally everybody here.”
The DNR says the decline is likely driven by an uptick in invasive species like mussels that choke out whitefish populations.
“This has now been going on for some time, and it correlates pretty well with the invasion of Dreissena mussels — so quagga and zebra mussels — in the Great Lakes,” said Stephen Lenart, manager of the DNR’s tribal fisheries coordination. “There’s just less energy for fish, and if there’s less energy for fish, that means there are fewer fish, and in some cases, smaller fish.”
The mussels are having such an impact that even without human fishing activity, Lenart says the whitefish population likely would not recover naturally.
“There’s no regulatory fix for what the problem is, which is the survival of young fish,” he said.
Potential solutions include continued ecosystem research, experiments with greater whitefish stocking and the control of invasive mussels.
Biologists say that some of these methods may be difficult at a large scale — but they say that without action, the future of the species could be dark.
“As things stand, if we do nothing, I don’t see how the whitefish populations improve,” Ripple said.