For generations, the silvery, mild-tasting fish has been a defining part of life around the Great Lakes. It fills nets for commercial fishers, anchors menus in “Up North” restaurants, and holds deep cultural significance for Indigenous communities who have relied on the species for centuries. But today, scientists, tribal fisheries managers, and conservation groups warn that the population in Lakes Michigan and Huron is under increasing stress. Without intervention, some researchers fear the fishery could decline dramatically within the next decade.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” said Kris Dey, hatchery manager for the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians.
Lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) have long been one of the most important fish species in the Great Lakes. Indigenous communities harvested and preserved them long before European settlement, often smoking the fish or grinding it into soups and stews. When European explorers arrived, they quickly recognized the value of the fish as well. In 1695, French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac famously wrote that “better fish can not be eaten.”
More than three centuries later, that sentiment still echoes across northern Michigan. From roadside fish shacks to historic waterfront restaurants, whitefish remains one of the region’s signature dishes.
“Whitefish is synonymous with northern Michigan,” said Mark Smolak, whose family has operated the historic Legs Inn in Cross Village since the 1930s. For Smolak and many others in the region, the fish represents far more than a menu item. Losing it, he said, would feel like losing a part of the region’s identity.
Despite that deep cultural connection, the modern whitefish fishery has been shrinking. Lake whitefish currently account for roughly 85 percent of Michigan’s commercial Great Lakes catch, making them the backbone of the state’s commercial fishing industry. Yet harvest numbers have dropped sharply in recent years. State-licensed commercial fishers brought in about 6.3 million pounds of whitefish in 2011, but by 2024 that total had fallen to roughly 1.6 million pounds. The number of commercial fishing operations has also declined dramatically—from hundreds in the 1970s to just a small number today.
Several factors are contributing to the decline, but one of the most significant is the dramatic transformation of the Great Lakes ecosystem caused by invasive species. Zebra and quagga mussels, introduced through ballast water from transoceanic ships in the late twentieth century, now blanket large portions of lake bottoms in Lakes Michigan and Huron. These small mussels filter enormous volumes of water, stripping out plankton and other nutrients that form the base of the aquatic food chain.
The result is the strikingly clear water that many visitors now notice along Great Lakes shorelines. While that clarity may appear beautiful, it reflects a food web that has been fundamentally altered.
For lake whitefish, the consequences are especially severe during reproduction. Whitefish typically spawn in the fall on shallow rocky reefs along the lake shoreline. Their eggs settle between stones and develop slowly throughout the winter before hatching in early spring. In today’s ultra-clear water, however, those eggs are exposed to higher levels of ultraviolet radiation, which can damage developing embryos.
Even when eggs successfully hatch, survival is far from guaranteed. The newly hatched fish encounter a much smaller supply of plankton to feed on, while invasive predators such as round gobies readily consume both eggs and young whitefish. As a result, strong spawning years have become increasingly rare in parts of Lakes Michigan and Huron. In some areas, researchers say the lakes have gone nearly two decades without a significant wave of young fish entering the population.
Faced with these challenges, scientists and fisheries managers are experimenting with a strategy that looks to the past for answers. Historically, lake whitefish used two different spawning approaches. Some fish deposited their eggs on shallow reefs in the lakes, while others migrated into rivers and streams to spawn on rocky riverbeds. Over time, however, logging, dam construction, and habitat degradation blocked access to many tributaries, effectively eliminating river-spawning populations in much of Michigan.
Now researchers are attempting to revive that lost behavior.
Teams from the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, and other partners have begun collecting whitefish eggs from adult fish in Lake Michigan. The eggs are carefully transferred—often using simple tools like turkey basters—into plastic trays and incubation containers. Those containers are then placed in tributary rivers such as the Jordan River in northern Michigan.
The idea is to allow the eggs to hatch within the river environment. Young fish would spend their earliest months in the river system before eventually migrating into Lake Michigan. Scientists hope the fish will imprint on the river’s chemical signature during this early stage of life, causing them to return there years later when they reach maturity.
Because lake whitefish typically begin spawning at around five years of age, researchers will need to wait several seasons before they know whether the experiment has worked.
There are encouraging signs elsewhere in the Great Lakes. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, lake whitefish began spawning again in tributary rivers during the 1990s. Scientists believe this return to river spawning has helped stabilize the region’s whitefish population even as other parts of the Great Lakes have struggled.
If the Michigan experiments succeed, researchers hope to expand the effort to additional tributaries across the state. Reestablishing multiple river-spawning populations could help spread risk and strengthen the species’ chances of survival.
Even so, scientists caution that the fishery may never return to the abundance seen in earlier decades. Whitefish will continue to spend most of their lives in Great Lakes waters shaped by invasive mussels and changing environmental conditions. Climate change may add further pressure by warming lake temperatures and altering food webs.
Michigan already lies near the southern edge of the lake whitefish’s natural range, making the species particularly sensitive to environmental shifts.
Still, researchers say stabilizing the population—even at a lower level than in the past—would represent an important step forward. For the fishing communities, tribal nations, and coastal towns that have depended on the fish for generations, preserving lake whitefish means protecting not just a species, but a cultural and economic legacy tied to the Great Lakes.
References
Bridge Michigan. 2025. Northern Michigan’s beloved whitefish are in peril.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. 2024. Lake Whitefish Status in the Great Lakes.
U.S. Geological Survey. 2023. Invasive Mussels in the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Fishery Commission. 2022. Lake Whitefish Population Dynamics in Lakes Michigan and Huron.
The Nature Conservancy. 2024. Restoring Tributary Spawning for Great Lakes Whitefish.