Great Lakes Fisheries - The Nature Conservancy
It's hard to imagine the Great Lakes without weekend fishing trips or the legendary Friday night fish fry. For centuries, a wide range of species have shaped the health of these waters, as well as the communities and cultures that thrived on nearby shorelines.
Yet in the past 200 years, the Great Lakes have been altered by invasive species, historic overfishing, tributary damming, habitat loss and climate change. As a result, the Lakes have lost several mid-level forage fish that were once the foundation of a healthy food web, as they provided food for top predators. This impacts the entire ecosystem of the lakes, as well as the commercial and recreational fisheries that are dependent on healthy fish populations. Management agencies have made great progress to check, reverse or compensate for these losses, but there's still work to be done to protect Great Lakes fish for nature and people.
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