The Salmon Capital of Michigan: The Rise and Fall of a Great Lakes Fishery

This ethnographic account details the lives and livelihoods impacted by a once-unrivaled Michigan salmon fishery, which collapsed in the early 2000s due to the depletion of alewife, a prey fish species. Author Carson Prichard incorporates fisheries science and local news media into an oral history that is entertaining, rich, and genuine.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 02 April 2024
Publisher: Wayne State University Press

This ethnographic account delves into the lives and livelihoods impacted by a once-unrivaled Michigan salmon fishery, weaving together the stories and voices of residents, anglers, community leaders, environmental workers, and researchers. The introduction of Chinook salmon to the Great Lakes in the late 1960s sparked a thriving recreational fishing industry in Northern Michigan, attracting thousands of anglers to small towns like Rogers City each week at its peak. However, by the early 2000s, a crisis emerged beneath the surface of Lake Huron, as the population of a prey fish species called alewife unexpectedly collapsed, depleting the salmon's primary source of food. By 2007, the salmon population had also collapsed, leaving local fisheries and their respective communities without a vital commodity and a stake in fishery tourism. Author, angler, and ecologist Carson Prichard skillfully incorporates fisheries science and local news media into an oral history that is entertaining, rich, and genuine. Complementing an ecological understanding of events, this narrative details the significance of the fishery and its loss as experienced by the townspeople whose lives it touched.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780814351130