In Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world, populations of native lake trout were on the brink of collapsing in the 1960s due to overfishing and invasive sea lampreys. Now, the species has recovered to such an extent that state officials will be using lake trout from Lake Superior to stock other lakes around Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
“It’s kind of a good story to tell,” said Cory Goldsworthy, Department of Natural Resources Lake Superior fisheries supervisor. “We busted our butts to rehabilitate lake trout in Lake Superior and now the population is doing so well we are using those adult fish for inland stocking programs.”
State officials were stocking Lake Superior with lake trout in order to keep the species going until 2015, when it was decided that the trout were finally reproducing enough on their own. Now, the fact that lake trout will be brought from Lake Superior to stock other lakes is a surprising and heartening reversal…