As the new chief of the Michigan Department of Conservation’s Fish Division in 1964, Howard A. Tanner was challenged to “do something . . . spectacular.” He met that challenge by leading the successful introduction of coho salmon into the Michigan waters of the Great Lakes. This volume illustrates how Tanner was able to accomplish this feat: from a detailed account of his personal and professional background that provided a foundation for success; the historical and contemporary context in which the Fish Division undertook this bold step to reorient the state’s fishery from commercial to sport; the challenges, such as resistance from existing government institutions and finding funding, that he and his colleagues faced; the risks they took by introducing a nonnative species; the surprises they experienced in the first season’s catch; to, finally, the success they achieved in establishing a world-renowned, biologically and financially beneficial sport fishery in the Great Lakes. Tanner provides an engaging history of successfully introducing Pacific salmon into the lakes from the perspective of an ultimate insider.

This publication provides an historical review and evaluation of documented ecological effects associated with salmonine introductions to the Laurentian Great Lakes. The introduction of salmonines to the Great Lakes date back to the 1870s, when natural populations of native salmonines in the Great Lakes were in severe decline. Using established evaluation protocols, it was determined that there is evidence of significant ecological effects in six different categories: (1) diseases and parasites, (2) predation on native species, (3) competition for limiting resources, (4) genetic alteration, (5) environmental alteration and (6) community alteration. Taken together, this body of evidence supports the conclusion that the ongoing introduction of non-native salmonines poses an ecologically-significant risk to the Great Lakes ecosystem and its native organisms, and that the introductions should be terminated.

This history of the salmon in the Great Lakes describes the decline and extinction of the Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario in the 1800's; the failure to establish, by salmon culture, permanent or sizable populations of Atlantic or Pacific salmon in any of the Great Lakes in 1867-1965; and the success of plantings of coho and chinook salmon in the Great Lakes, 1966-1970 -- particularly in Lake Michigan.