Chinook salmon stock reduced in MI - WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

MICHIGAN (WKOW) -- Lake Michigan's Chinook salmon are doing very well of late. So much so, in fact, that Michigan officials plan to reduce their stocking of the popular game fish.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced it will cut its annual Chinook stocking in the lake by two-thirds. It'll go from 1.67 million to 560,000. The change begins next spring.

The decision implements last month's recommendation from the Lake Michigan Committee that states reduce stocking by half, from 3.3 million to 1.7 million annually. Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin and Indian tribes are represented on the committee.

Naturalists say overstocking of predator fish threatens the population of other lake species and upsets the ecological balance. Half the Chinook in the lake now are the result of natural reproduction.