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March 27, 2005Invasive species spawned fisheryByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Neither salmon nor the alewives on which they so depend for food are native Great Lakes species. Alewives migrated from the Atlantic Ocean up the St. Lawrence Seaway and Welland Canal. By the early 1960s alewives had so overrun the Great Lakes that it was common to see mounds of the dead, rotting fish on shorelines. "They used to close beaches to bulldoze the alewives," DNR fisheries biologist Jim Johnson said. "It was hurting the tourist industry in a big way." It was Michigan DNR Director Howard Tanner and his assistant fisheries chief, Wayne Tody, who in the mid-1960s came up with an almost bizarre solution to the alewife problem - introduce Pacific Ocean breeds of coho and chinook salmon to the Great Lakes. Tanner and Tody expected a side benefit of creating a vibrant new fishing option for the Great Lakes. Up until 1968, no fishing licenses were needed in Michigan Great Lakes waters, as non-commercial fishing was minor to the point of irrelevance. Coho salmon were stocked on the Great Lakes in 1966, chinook in 1968. Tanner and Tody's grand experiment worked. The salmon sensation exploded almost instantly in Michigan. Anglers who were excited over catching a 3-pound bass now had a true game fish stripping line off their reels, right off the shores of their hometowns. "In 1969 I saw three miles of (fishermen's) cars parked up and down the road by the Platte River near Frankfort," longtime angler John King said. "It went from nothing to something you couldn't believe within two years." See Related Story: Kings in exile: Salmon vacate Lake Huron for Lake Michigan
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