Tag Archives: lake herring

Historic boom in Lake Superior’s herring population could be best in 40 years

Potentially record numbers of lake herring, also called cisco born last spring seem to have survived their first year of life, according to state and federal biologists. At a year old, they should be just large enough that few predators in Lake Superior will now eat them. The stunning boom, not seen since at least 1984, will help sustain both the ecosystem and Minnesota’s commercial fishing industry in one of the world’s greatest lakes for years to come, said Cory Goldsworthy, Lake Superior fisheries supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Goldsworthy said. “It’s something we’ve never seen before in our careers and may not see again.” >click to read< 09:46

What European demand for caviar means for a Great Lakes fish

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, and it has something the other Great Lakes don’t — stable populations of mostly native fish species. But scientists say a key fish in Superior’s food web is now in trouble because of mild winters and an appetite for caviar in Europe. There wasn’t much demand for lake herring until a few years ago. Craig Hoopman says it used to be fed to mink and used as fertilizer. He says around 2007, Scandinavians started buying lake herring eggs, or roe, for caviar. Listen, Read the rest here 12:11