{"id":8482,"date":"2021-04-11T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T15:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8482"},"modified":"2021-04-15T06:46:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:46:26","slug":"episode-307-the-alewife-population-explosion-millions-dead-multiple-millions-living-in-the-great-lakes-1867","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8482","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 307 THE ALEWIFE POPULATION EXPLOSION: millions dead, multiple millions living in the Great Lakes 1867"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 307    THE ALEWIFE POPULATION EXPLOSION: millions  of  dead, multiple millions living in the Great Lakes 1967<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
April 2021<\/div>\n

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HOW DID THE ALEWIFE GET ITS NAME?<\/div>\n

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Alewives have a peculiar shape.  The  front part of the fish is enlarged\u2026bigger than the bottom part.  Apparently the name<\/div>\n
alewife referred to the imaginary wives of saloon keepers whose wives were supposedly Buxom.  Today that definition<\/div>\n
would be considered sexist and  unacceptable.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Howard  Tanner was a passenger in a small plane flying over Lake Michigan when he noticed<\/div>\n
something strange in the water below.  It was a great white streak on top of the normally blue<\/div>\n
water … several miles long and half a mile wide.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat\u2019s that streak?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDead fish, millions of them.\u201d responded the pilot<\/div>\n
\u201cCircle snd go lower so I can get a better look.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n

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Sure enough there were millions of little fish floating dead in<\/div>\n
the middle of Lake Michigan.  Howard knew what they were.  <\/div>\n

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\u201cAlewives.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Keep the name Howard Tanner in mind.  He  eventually changed to whole ecology  of the Great Lakesl<\/div>\n
\u2026\u201dI will either be a  hero or a bum,\u201d he commented.  You ve the judge in subsequent  Episodes.<\/div>\n

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THE 1967 DIE OFF IN LAKE MICHIGAN<\/div>\n

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THE ALEWIFE EXPLOSION: REPORT BY THE (U.S.) FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION, JULY 25, 1967<\/div>\n

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FISH populations in the Great Lakes had declined but the decline was worsened dramatically in<\/div>\n
\u201c THE 1945-49 period  when the lake trout  declined sharply.   Subsequent species  changes  took place in<\/div>\n
swift succession and by 1965 the catch  was dominated by the alewife which invaded  the lake (Michigan) where it was first<\/div>\n
recorded  in 1949; exotic  species constituted nearly 63% of the catch and the portion of the catch composed  of Lake Trout,<\/div>\n
lake  herring, suckers and whitefish which exceeded 82% in the 1898-1909 period, was only 4.5% in 1965.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere  is no question, however, that predation of the sea lamprey triggered the decline of the lake trout in the upper three<\/div>\n
great lakes\u2026and a population explosion of he alewife were major contributing factors..\u201d<\/div>\n

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THE ALEWIFE STORY<\/div>\n

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These  changes in the fish populations of the Great Lakes occurred  in a remarkably short period of time.  The sea lampreys<\/div>\n
sucked the blood out of huge numbers off lake trout.  Lake trout relied heavily on alewives for food and doing  so<\/div>\n
kept the alewife population in check.  Once the lake trout population declined suddenly there was an equal and opposite<\/div>\n
reaction by the alewives.  By the 1960\u2019s it was estimated that 90% of the biomass in the Great Lakes  was alewives.<\/div>\n
Not thousands\u2026not millions\u2026but billions of alewives.   <\/div>\n

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Alewives  are bottom feeders.  Lake trout lay their eggs on the bottom of the Great Lakes which when they hatched  provided<\/div>\n
a food  bonanza for the alewives.    The victims of these two creatures\u2026the sea lamprey and the alewife\u2026were the Lake Trout.<\/div>\n
Suddenly the Great Lakes fishery got out of balance.   Lake Trout (and other Great Lakes fish) dropped  from 82% in 1898-1909<\/div>\n
to 4.5% in 1965.   An amazing change done with great speed.<\/div>\n

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In 1873 the first alewife was  detected  in Lake Ontario.   How did it get there?   Normally an Atlantic fish that lived its life in<\/div>\n
salt water but spawned in the rivers and ponds and even drainage ditches of the east coast.  Some  may have ventured up<\/div>\n
he St. Lawrence waterway.  But alewives may also  have been present in Lake Ontario and  Lake Champlain for ages.<\/div>\n
And not a  problem.  Lots of natural  fish liked eating alewives. a  fact that kept the population in balance.  Lobster fishermen<\/div>\n
use alewives as bait.   <\/div>\n

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As  long as there was  a healthy lake trout population then the alewives were no problem.  Lake trout liked to eat alewives<\/div>\n
as did other prey fish.   However when the lake trout began to disappear due to sea Lamprey predation there was<\/div>\n
less and less  check on the alewives  of the Great Lakes.   A population explosion followed that overwhelmed the Great<\/div>\n
Lake fish populations.   So many alewives that they became 90% of the biomass of the Great Lakes by the 1960\u2019s.<\/div>\n
A number that high is hard  to believe but true.  <\/div>\n

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IT  was the millions of dead  alewives that alerted Canadians and Americans to the fact that untold  millions of live alewife<\/div>\n
had taken  control of the Great Lakes.   The alewife  takeover was not \u2018about to happen\u2019 nor was it \u2018happening\u2019.  It had  happened.<\/div>\n
The Great Lakes fish bowl was full to overflowing with alewives.  Remember this figure\u202690% of the biomass of the Great Lakes<\/div>\n
in 1967 was alewives.  Incredible. Devastating.  Perhaps insoluble..<\/div>\n

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The huge carpets  of floating dead  and dying alewives noticed by Howard Tanner was  repeated elsewhere in the Great Lakes<\/div>\n
I was a  teen ager in 1953 when I noticed carpets  of dead alewives on Sunnyside Beach in Toronto.  Nothing like what<\/div>\n
Tanner noticed but striking \u2026 and revolting \u2026all the same.  These huge carpets  of  dead  alewives were explained as<\/div>\n
having been killed by sudden water temperature change.  Which may have been true.  Another explanation was that the<\/div>\n
alewife deaths were natural.  Millions just reached maturing and died.  The Great Lakes had become a fish bowl almost<\/div>\n
exclusively alewife.<\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\"page1image133874720\" \t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The alewife dead on Toronto beaches in the 1950\u2019s and  1960\u2019s looked much like this  photograph.  In Chicago in 1967 the<\/div>\n
dead  alewives piled up in millions\u2026carcasses  rated\u2026millions and millions of flies feasted\u2026and the smell was so bad that beaches<\/div>\n
were abandoned while bulldozers and trucks moved as many as 60 tons  of red  alewives to disposal sites where they were buried.<\/div>\n
Below are some excerpts from local  Chicago newspapers and  individuals.   One local said that a floating strip of dead  alewives<\/div>\n
in Lake Michigan was estimated  as 40 miles long.  Surely an exagerration!  <\/div>\n

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CHICAGO\u2026.DEAD ALEWIVES NIGHTMARE<\/div>\n

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WHAT WAS HAPPENING?<\/div>\n

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Why did the alewife population explode?<\/div>\n

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1) Overfishing for a century.  Fish population was not infinite but was treated as if infinite.<\/div>\n
2) Sea Lamprey population explosion peaked 1960\u2026lake<\/div>\n
trout biggest victims<\/div>\n
3) Alewife population explosion\u2026lake  trout biggest victims<\/div>\n
for two reasons.  1) Alewives feasted on lake trout fry which<\/div>\n
were born in the great lakes rather  than the feeder rivers.<\/div>\n
ii) Lake trout diet of alewives triggered  thiamin deficiency in<\/div>\n
lake trout where the fry became sterile.  Attributed to the absence <\/div>\n
of thiamin in the alewives.<\/div>\n

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COMMENTS BY NEWSPAPERS AND CITIZENS IN CHICAGO IN 1967<\/div>\n

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artwork.chicagoartsource.com<\/a><\/font><\/i><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
June 19, 1967 \u2013<\/b> The beaches at Montrose, Rainbow, North Avenue, Ohio Street and Oak Street are flooded with dead alewives in what a park district official calls the worst plague of the fish that he has seen in his career.  <\/span>Park district crews use bulldozers and high-lift trucks to remove the fish, but they keep washing up on the beaches faster than they can be carted away.<\/span>  <\/span>Joseph Krzesinski, the director of landscape maintenance for the park district, says, \u201cThey keep coming in.<\/span>  <\/span>In some places they are a foot deep.<\/span>  <\/span>Look out over the lake there they are as far as the eye can see.\u201d<\/span>  <\/span>[Chicago Tribune, June 20, 1967].<\/i>The invasion was first noted on June 15 when an official of the Great Lakes Region of the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration spotted streaks of the dead fish being blown toward the Michigan shore.<\/span>  <\/span>Between June 17 and 18 the wind shifted, blowing from east to west, and by June 19 \u201cChicago\u2019s shoreline was clogged with a silvery carpet of alewife carcasses.\u201d<\/span>  <\/span>[nepis.epa.gov<\/a>].<\/i> Alewives, originally inhabitants of the North Atlantic, were first seen in Lake Ontario in the 1880\u2019s and gradually moved through the Great Lakes over the years.<\/span> <\/span>Marine biologists suggest that a combination of factors has led to the plague of dead alewives in Lake Michigan.<\/span>  <\/span>Over-fishing in the Great Lakes in the early part of the century, along with the explosion of the sea lamprey, an invasive species, resulted in the demise of the lake trout, the only natural threat to the alewife. When the 1960\u2019s arrived, it was estimated that alewives made up 90 percent of Lake Michigan\u2019s biomass. <\/span> <\/span>Schools as large as 40,000 fish moved close to shore in late spring to spawn, with a female alewife carrying between 10,000 to 12,000 eggs.<\/span>  <\/span>After spawning a mass die-off of the fish would occur, which was especially pronounced in 1967, biologists theorize, because of extreme fluctuations in the temperature of Lake Michigan.<\/span>  <\/span>After 1967 the government began stocking the lake with Chinook salmon, \u201cthe most voracious fish in the lake\u201d.<\/span>  <\/span>[Chicago Tribune, January 22, 2006].<\/i><\/span>  <\/span>The salmon feed at the same water level as alewives and have kept the alewife population in check.  The above photo shows the lake shore at Diversey Harbor during the invasion.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The old adage, \u201can east wind is neither good for man nor beast,\u201d was especially relevant for Wilmette in the summer of 1967. That was the year that a particularly heavy die-off of alewives washed up on the beaches. The prevailing east winds pushed the decaying bodies of these small, silvery fish ashore in droves. By July, the Wilmette Park District was hauling six or seven truck loads of alewives out to a landfill in Des Plaines every single day. Next door at Winnetka\u2019s beach, the dead fish were piled up one foot deep and ten feet wide, while Highland Park hauled sixty tons of dead fish away in just two days. Accompanying the sharp smell of decay was an influx of flies and mosquitoes. All in all, not a great beach year for Wilmette. Beach attendance was already hitting record lows\u2013 down almost sixty-five percent from its high in 1960\u2013 before the alewives arrived. Then things got even worse. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s summer.  We\u2019re all enjoying the great outdoors, and some of us are going to the beach.  Back in the 1960s, when people around Chicago went to the beach, they had to deal with alewives.<\/p>\n

An alewife is a kind of herring.  It\u2019s about 7 inches long and weighs a few ounces.  You mostly find them off New England.  In the Boston suburbs, one of the major streets is even called Alewife Parkway.<\/p>\n

\"alewife1X.jpg\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Well, during the 1930s, these alewives got into Lake Michigan.  They weren\u2019t much of a problem because the bigger fish\u2013like the trout\u2013would eat them.  But the sea lamprey came along and ate the trout.  Sea lampreys didn\u2019t eat alewives, so suddenly, the lake had all these alewives and no predators.<\/p>\n

Pretty soon there are alewives filling the lake.  That\u2019s what today\u2019s story is about\u2014July 7, 1967.  There are so many alewives around Chicago that it\u2019s become national news.  Even Time<\/em> magazine is talking about it.<\/p>\n

Each year, we\u2019d have the annual Alewife Die-Off.  All these alewives would die in Lake Michigan, and their bodies would drift in.  They\u2019d fill the water near the shore or wash up onto the beach.<\/p>\n

\"Alewife2.jpg\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Of course, those alewives would be decaying, and you can imagine the smell\u2014well, you probably don\u2019t want to.  The flies would come in, and the beaches would be a mess.  The city would have to use tractors and bulldozers to clear off the beaches.<\/p>\n

Nobody knew how many dead alewives there were.  Experts said hundreds of millions, maybe a billion.  A guy in a plane over the lake saw a ribbon of drifting dead alewives 40 miles long.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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alan skeoch<\/p>\n

April 2021<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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POSTSCRIPT:   REVIEW LIFE  AND DEATH IN THE GREATEST FISH BOWL ON EARTH: THE GREAT LAKES<\/div>\n

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TROUBLES:  1) OVERFISHING  2) SEA  LAMPREYS   3) ALEWIVES  4) NEXT:\u2026EPISODE 308   HOWARD TANNER \u2026COHO AND CHINOOK SALMON<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 307    THE ALEWIFE POPULATION EXPLOSION: millions  of  dead, multiple millions living in the Great Lakes 1967 alan skeoch April 2021 HOW DID THE ALEWIFE GET ITS NAME? Alewives have a peculiar shape.  The  front part of the fish is enlarged\u2026bigger than the bottom part.  Apparently the name alewife referred to the imaginary wives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}