How has the Lake Superior fish community changed since 1970?
A. Wild lake trout abundance has increased and may be approaching fully rehabilitated levels. Lake herring stocks have also rebounded in much of the lake, but continue to exhibit sporadic recruitment. The deep-water fish community composed mainly of siscowet lake trout, burbot, deep-water chubs and sculpin remains relatively undisturbed. Pacific salmon have become naturalized and are largely supported by self-reproducing populations, which makes continued stocking ineffective in most areas of the lake. Prey biomass has largely shifted from non-native rainbow smelt to native species, and high predation rates may limit any future recovery of rainbow smelt to historical levels. Managers have little influence on prey abundance as predatory impact is the driving force, and control of predator abundance is limited because most species are now self-sustaining. A potential threat to the recovering fish community remains the adverse affects of unwanted introductions and new introductions of exo
