The Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Charlevoix Fisheries Research Station is based in a building that was constructed in 1917, originally as a federal fish hatchery. It wasn’t the first on this site. An earlier hatchery was built in 1894.

The U.S. government was trying to replenish the fish population.

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This article was republished here with permission from Great Lakes Echo.

By Victoria Witke, Great Lakes Echo

Every spring for the last 15 years, Gene Gilliland and some friends have gone smallmouth bass fishing in Lake St. Clair in Southeast Michigan for a week.

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By Daniel Wanschura, Interlochen Public Radio

Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.

This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio. 

Dave Naftzger found out about the 100% Fish Project entirely by accident.

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Eat Your Heartland Out is a Taste Awards nominated  program about the intersection of food and culture in the American Midwest. The show is produced by the Heritage Radio Network, a leader in culinary audio storytelling and distributed on the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), which provides content to public radio affiliates across the United States.

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Veteran fishers on Lake Erie fondly recall the late 1980s as a heyday for walleye – a time when Ohio anglers were allowed to catch 10 fish a day and the big-eyed apex predators seemed an endless resource.

At its height in 1988, the Ohio charter fishing industry supported 1,221 licensed captains and nearly 5 million walleye were taken.

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By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.

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For more than a century, a dam divided the upstream Sandusky River from Lake Erie. People got power, but fish were prevented from reaching native spawning grounds.

Then, four years ago, the dam came down, like hundreds around the Great Lakes region. It had been replaced as a power source years earlier, and environmentalists argued to restore the river’s natural course.

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While Great Lakes fish populations are constantly in a state of flux, one species has declined precipitously in the last decade: lake whitefish. But Great Lakes leaders and fisheries managers are looking ahead in planning to do more with less.

And in the case of whitefish, a lot more.

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If you catch fish in a Great Lakes state on a river, pond, stream or reservoir and keep any to eat, most likely you’ll have to clean them yourself. But if you get close to one of the big lakes, especially Lake Erie, you could have a fish cleaner do it.

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The total allowable catch (TAC) for yellow perch and walleye went up this year in Lake Erie. The raise is indicative of booming walleye population in recent years as well as a healthy perch population in most areas of the lake.

The walleye TAC rose 18% from 12.28 million fish in 2021 to 14.53 million this year, with yellow perch rising 15% from 6.23 million pounds last year to 7.18 million pounds this year.

Read Now at Great Lakes Now.