PRESS EDITORIAL: Hope for native fish in a hint of evolution

On a sunny day in early November, the west slip of the Port Washington harbor was a teeming aquarium. The smooth surface of the water was dappled with a multitude of tiny splashes made by vast schools of alewives swimming at the surface.

Gulls and terns, airborne in cacophonous flocks, feasted in a can’t-miss feeding frenzy with acrobatic dives into the mass of small silver fish.

Chinook and coho salmon that would normally inhale alewives with gusto shared the cold, deep harbor water, but were more intent on spawning than eating. The fall salmon run was underway, and judging from the success of the many anglers who lined the Coal Dock Park seawall and marina docks, the big gamefish were numerous as they acted out their instinct to spawn in Sauk Creek before dying.

That day offered a snapshot of a Great Lake brimming with life, and for that the residents of Ozaukee County and of the entire 1,640 miles of Lake Michigan coastline can be thankful. Fishing is a beloved recreation and an important generator of economic benefit, as the vitality of the Port Washington charter fishing fleet attests.

People engaged in both the fun and the business of Lake Michigan sportfishing had to be heartened by that unusual visit by schools of alewife, for the fish have been in decline since the days when they were so numerous they blighted beaches after massive die-offs and commercial fishing operators, including a Port Washington fish-tug owner, trawled for alewives that they sold by the ton to be used as fertilizer. Today, though their population has been declining, alewives in effect fertilize sportfishing by being the primary food source for the salmon stocked in the lake.

Neither fish is native to the Great Lakes. Alewives came from the Atlantic Ocean, salmon from the Pacific. They can be called invasive species, though they seem benign compared to others in that class of non-native creatures. That snapshot showing the vitality of Lake Michigan did not tell the whole story.

The lake is in the throes of a grim battle with invasive species that have all but destroyed it as a food source for millions of people, as it was when commercial fishing for native whitefish, lake trout and perch was a vital industry. More than 100 foreign organisms exist in the Great Lakes, some of the most harmful of which are quagga and zebra mussels and nasty fish called gobies.

The presence of these species that have devastated native fish populations is, like all of the Lakes’ problems, a man-made offense. The worst of the exotic creatures were delivered in the ballast water of ocean-going freighters. Homegrown pollution—farm animal waste and fertilizer runoff, sewage effluent and industrial chemical waste—adds to the damage wrought by the invasives.

Humans will not be able to undo all of the hurt they have inflicted on the Lakes—the imported creatures are here to stay—but there is much that can be done to restore the health of a freshwater source that is one of the world’s most precious natural resources. To his credit, President Donald Trump recognized that when he reversed his decision to cut funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by 90% and instead proposed a small increase in spending for the program in 2021.

The budgeted $320 million for the GLRI next year, to be used to carry on the program’s mission to control and prevent invasive species predation, limit nutrient runoff and restore habitat, is welcome but viewed as a minimum commitment by members of Congress from Great Lakes states and environmental organizations. They are right—the lakes are worth more.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to reinvigorate the Environmental Protection Agency, whose powers have been curtailed under the Trump administration. Biden should be pressed to follow through and bolster the role of the agency, which is charged with implementing the GLRI, in Great Lakes restoration.

In the meantime, Lake Michigan seems to be trying to help itself. Ichthyologists say whitefish, having lost much of their zooplankton food supply to invasives, are evolving to digest gobies and mussels and are making a comeback. There are signs lake trout are following suit.    

This inspires a hope that one day a snapshot of Lake Michigan will show it to be brimming with a richer variety of life that includes the native fish that once thrived in its waters.