Lake Herring/Fish of the Great Lakes by Wisconsin Sea Grant

Text Only

Alewife

Atlantic Salmon

Bloater

Brook Trout

Brown Trout

Burbot

Carp

Chinook Salmon

Coho Salmon

Freshwater Drum

Lake Herring

Lake Sturgeon

Lake Trout

Lake Whitefish

Longnose Sucker

Muskellunge

Northern Pike

Pink Salmon

Rainbow Smelt

Rainbow Trout

Round Goby

Round Whitefish

Ruffe

Sea Lamprey

Smallmouth Bass

Walleye

White Perch

White Sucker

Yellow Perch

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

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