Coaster brook trout doing well in Lake Superior near Grand Marais

The coaster brook trout is native to the coastlines and tributaries of Lake Superior. Following decades of heavy fishing pressure and habitat destruction resulting from logging practices near the North Shore, the coaster brook trout population was all but decimated in Lake Superior.

Since the late 1990s, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has been trying to establish a self-sustaining population in several Lake Superior tributaries. In 2007, the band took their effort a step further and built the Grand Portage Native Fish Hatchery.

Fisheries biologists from the Grand Portage Band and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continue to monitor the coaster brook trout population along the North Shore. Fisheries surveys took place recently near Grand Marais, as WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs learns in this interview with Nick Peterson from the DNR.