Lake Herring
Coregonus artedii

• Length:11 to 15 inches
• Weight:6 ounces to 2 pounds
• Coloring: silvery with pink to purple iridescence
• Common Names: cisco, tullibee, freshwater herring
• Found in Lakes: Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior

These small, slender-bodied relatives of the lake whitefish school at depths that vary with seasonal temperatures. They feed on plankton, insects, and fish eggs. Herring once lived in Lake Michigan in almost unbelievable abundance. In fact, as a forage fish, they were to lake trout and other aquatic predators what the rabbit has always been to land predators. In the last century, herring provided some of the largest catches from the Great Lakes and, when salted down or smoked for preservation, provisioned much of the developing country.

In the 20th century, these indigenous Great Lakes fish succumbed to pollution and fishing pressures -- not to mention competition from alewives and smelt. However, with the alewife and smelt in decline in the 1980s, herring populations are once more thriving near the Apostle Islands and other regions of western Lake Superior, where Minnesota is stocking them. Solid populations also inhabit the St. Marys River and northern Lake Huron. Limited numbers have also reappeared in Lake Michigan's lower Green Bay.

Comments |  Credits |  About Us

What's New | Research News | Fish IDs | Special Features | Kids' Page | Site Map

copyright 1998 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
Brook Trout illustration copyright 1998 Gina Mikel
Herring photo copyright 1995 Steve Geving/Minnesota DNR
Last updated 05 February 2002 by Seaman