Why doesn the MNDNR stock coho salmon?
A. Coho salmon are now naturalized in Lake Superior, and provide a good fishery in Minnesota. It would not be effective for the MNDNR to invest in a costly hatchery program to produce what the lake already produces well. Past stocking of hatchery-reared coho salmon resulted in very disappointing return rates even when competition from other species was minimal. In the Lake Superior fish community with its present high predator abundance, survival of stocked coho salmon would be even less than in the pre-restoration period.
