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Salmon For Supper | Great Lakes Fish Help Feed Wisconsin Families
Garrett Dietz
Garrett Dietz is a public information officer in the DNR’s Office of Communications.
In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Everything from the smallest macroinvertebrates to the largest wild game species serves a purpose to shape the natural world.
Take Pacific salmon. These fish only spawn once before dying, focusing their resources on maximizing reproductive efficiency. Once salmon reach the rivers where they spawn, they stop eating and swim upstream to their spawning habitat — a final journey to ensure the future of their species.
Salmon in the Great Lakes are actually Pacific salmon, intentionally stocked into the Great Lakes in the late 1960s. They were introduced as a control measure for the invasive alewife, which saw a population boom when lake trout populations declined due to overfishing and the spread of parasitic sea lampreys.
Not only did the large number of alewives provide a food source for salmon, but the cold, deep waters of the Great Lakes offered conditions where the fish could thrive.
When salmon enter Great Lakes tributaries to spawn, they stop eating and focus solely on returning to the headwaters where they originated, just like their western relatives. However, unlike the natural reproduction out West, when some Wisconsin salmon reach their spawning grounds, DNR employees capture, spawn (take eggs) and process them.
The goal is to ensure that, as in nature, nothing goes to waste.
Fit To Eat
Tens of thousands of salmon make their final journey up Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan tributaries each year. In doing so, these fish provide a unique sport fishing opportunity for anglers to chase trophy fish in relatively small streams and rivers.
Many salmon end up in freezers of enthusiastic anglers; others die on stream banks. And then there are those captured by the DNR.
The agency operates three weirs, or barriers, to capture spawning salmon species and process them: along Strawberry Creek in Sturgeon Bay, on the Kewaunee River and southeast on the Root River in Racine County.
Each fall, salmon eggs are collected, fertilized, incubated and hatched at DNR facilities. The young fish are raised and returned to their tributaries to continue the Lake Michigan population — Chinook salmon as fingerlings and coho salmon as yearlings (both are Pacific salmon species).
Since spawning is the end of a Pacific salmon’s lifecycle, the DNR ends up with thousands of pounds of fish each day during this process. One of the most impactful ways of dealing with the fish is donating fresh salmon to local food pantries.
Fisheries staff measure and document the sex of every salmon they spawn to track growth and population. Fish under 36 inches in good physical condition are deemed fit for consumption per the DNR’s Choose Wisely guidelines. These fish are made available to nonprofit organizations dedicated to feeding those in need.
‘Rare Resource’
One of many partners that receive salmon from the DNR is the Door County Food Pantry Coalition, a group of nine food pantries that join with the United Way and the Door County Community Foundation to fight food insecurity.
“Fish is a rare resource in many food pantries because it’s so expensive compared to other protein sources,” said Adam Peronto, philanthropic services officer for the Door County Community Foundation.
Fish for the coalition is picked up daily by the Baileys Harbor Fish Co., which processes, packages and stores the salmon filets on behalf of the pantries. Baileys Harbor Fish Co. receives funds from the Door County Food Pantry Coalition to cover the processing but donates its resources to transport, store and distribute the salmon.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the vacuum-packed filets are good for up to two years, giving the Door County Food Pantry Coalition access to sustainable, high-protein foods through the next salmon spawning season.
“Our partnership with the DNR is the largest single donation of food the coalition pantries receive,” Peronto said. “Last year, we received over 9,000 pounds of salmon from the DNR, which will provide a whole year’s worth of protein for our pantries to distribute.”
And that’s just one example of the DNR’s salmon donations. In the last 10 years, the agency has provided more than 130,000 pounds of salmon to nonprofit organizations across Wisconsin. In the fall of 2024 alone, roughly 31,000 pounds were donated.
Waste Not
Other salmon collected by the DNR — those over 36 inches or in poor physical condition — are deemed nonconsumable for humans (larger fish may have more harmful pollutants accumulated in their fatty tissues). However, instead of simply throwing them away, the DNR offers them up for bid to private companies, often for use as animal feed or fertilizer.
Any leftover eggs also are made available for purchase through a bidding process. These usually become bait for anglers targeting salmon or steelhead. Processing and distributing thousands of pounds of fish is a logistical challenge. For its part, Baileys Harbor Fish Co. strives to be as efficient as possible.
The company has taken the 100% Great Lakes Fish pledge, an initiative of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, chief executives from Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces. The effort focuses on using 100% of commercially caught fish.
“We’re proud to partner with our community to make the most of this incredible resource,” said owner Carin Stuth. “And just like with our own commercial harvests, we ensure nothing goes to waste.”
Learn More
For more on DNR salmon spawning, visit the DNR's Spawning Facilities webpage. For details on the Door County Food Pantry Coalition, go to the coalition's website. For health information on eating your catch, check out the DNR's Eating Your Catch webpage.
