From the Great Lakes Echo:

Any lake trout pulled from the wild blue waters of Lake Michigan now was probably born in a government building.

That’s despite a 45-year-old, multi-million-dollar program aimed at restoring a self-sustaining, naturally reproducing population of what was formerly the Great Lakes’ top predator.

Lake trout were wiped out in most of the Great Lakes by the mid-1900s as a result of overfishing, invasive species and habitat destruction. Managers started stocking them in Lake Michigan in 1965.

After little success, a 1985 revamp of the plan focused stocking on two relatively shallow, rocky sections of Lake Michigan where fishing for the species was banned.

At least part of that overhaul has proven fruitless, according to a study published recently in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management. Read more.