LUDINGTON (AP) -- Michigan fisheries officials are seeing signs that a move to reduce the number of Chinook salmon released into Lake Michigan is improving the balance between the popular game fish and its prey.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that preliminary data suggest there are fewer - but larger - Chinook in the lake than in previous years. That trend would provide further evidence that stocking cuts in 2006 are having the desired effect.
State research biologist Randy Claramunt says fish surveys show there's been an increase in the amount of alewife in the lake.
Alewives are the main food source of Chinook salmon. In 2006, states on all sides of Lake Michigan cut Chinook stocking from about 4.3 million to 3.2 million in response to a steady decline in levels of alewife and other forage fish.
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
