Coaster brook trout population continues to recover in Lake Superior

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.

And while not quite prepared to call the restoration effort a "complete success" at this point, Dr. Seth Moore, the Grand Portage band’s director of biology and environment, said progress is evident in the coaster brookie population near Grand Portage and along the North Shore.

WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs spoke with Moore about coaster brook trout.