- Length: 26 inches
- Weight: 4 pounds
- Coloring: brown, green or blue on top; silvery on
sides, and silvery white below
- Common Names: Kennebec salmon, sebago, sebago salmon, grilse,
kelt
- Found in Lakes: Stocked in Ontario
The Atlantic salmon has been honored throughout history. The Gauls and Romans
prized its many qualities, and Britain's Magna Carta even granted it rights of protection.
Despite its venerable past, this valuable sport and commercial fish has not readily
adapted to the upper Great Lakes, though they were once native to Lake Ontario. After more
than 100 years of trying, Canada and the U.S. have yet to establish these ocean-going
salmon in the fresh waters of any of the Great Lakes.
In recent years, Michigan has planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in
Lakes Michigan and Huron. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon come from the
freshwater lakes of Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. Michigan
and Wisconsin have at times experimented with a strain of Atlantic salmon that spawns in
the rivers of Quebec province, and Minnesota continues to stock this species.
From these stocking programs, Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes now have small
populations of Atlantic salmon. However, the success in reintroducing the fish has not
been noteworthy, and Michigan is the only state that continues to stock it.
Though most Atlantic salmon spawn in fresh water and then spend most of their life in
the ocean, some also lived their entire lives in Lake Ontario up until the 1900s. For over
100 years, Canada and the United States tried to establish self-sustaining populations of
Atlantic salmon in the upper Great Lakes, but with only minimal success.
After the parasitic sea lamprey was brought under control, Michigan planted a new
freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Superior. These
"Gullspang" Atlantic salmon came from Sweden, where they have been landlocked
since the Ice Ages. For a few years in the 1970s, Michigan and Wisconsin also planted a
strain of oceangoing Atlantic salmon in Lake Superior from stocks that spawned in the
rivers of the province of Quebec. In the 1980s, Minnesota alone continued to plant
Atlantic salmon in the headwater Great Lake, while Michigan today plants these fish only
in Lake Michigan.
Though Atlantic salmon may spawn two or three times during their lives,
self-propagating stocks have not yet developed. But fisheries scientists still hope that
some experimental strain of Atlantic salmon will be found that has the genetic makeup to
survive and reproduce in the Great Lakes.
