Impacts of a "Planted " Exotic species: the Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax

Abstract

In the early 1900s, rainbow smelt were planted in the Great Lakes by the State of Michigan and the U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (p esently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). Because smelt have been around so long, many people do not realize that they are an exotic or that they have caused considerable ecological damage. It has taken approximately fifty years fo_r us to understanding their impact on the Great Lakes and the many inland waterways that they have invaded.