TRAVERSE CITY, Mich — Fewer salmon thrashed their way up the rivers surrounding Lake Michigan this fall. Last year’s numbers were bad, but this year’s numbers are worse, and that has anglers and fisheries experts worried about the local fishing and charter boat businesses.

Scott Heintzelman, who heads the Department of Natural Resources Central Lake Michigan fisheries management unit, said they harvested 185 chinook salmon at the Boardman River weir — a barrier across a river designed to alter its flow. The numbers are way down from last year’s record low of 1,363. The DNR operates five river weirs in Michigan to harvest salmon eggs for stocking throughout the state.

No one wants to see Lake Michigan follow in Lake Huron’s path — the former salmon hotbed lost 64 percent of its charter business between 1990 and 2009 because of a similar salmon-alewife imbalance — where the alewife fish, salmon’s main food source suddenly decreased. But they aren’t panicking yet, said Aaron Switzer, who manages northern Michigan’s state fish hatcheries.

“That’s drastically below our averages there,” Heintzelman said of the numbers at the Boardman River. Counts at the Little Manistee River weir follow a similar pattern. Last fall, Heintzelman took eggs from 2,781 chinook. He has only seen 530 as of Oct. 16.

As a result of human development and advancements in the United States, salmon populations have decreased dramatically. Pollution, overfishing, and the development of dams are some of the reasons why Atlantic salmon numbers have plummeted, according to a recent article from Fusion.

However, the world’s salmon supply isn’t dependant on Lake Michigan’s fisheries, which are mostly used for sportfishing. Much of the salmon that ends up on Americans’ dinner plates comes from farming salmon, where farmers raise the fish in a controlled environment.

Alaska also plays an important role in wild salmon harvesting; it is home to “one of the world’s last and largest sustainable wild salmon fisheries, with hundreds of millions of fish returning year after year,” according to Fusion.

Although a lot of commercial fishing for Atlantic salmon has been stopped, and the numbers have improved slightly, the salmon population still remains low and some species are still endangered.  

Angler Larry Raney has fished Michigan’s rivers, streams and inland lakes for 16 years. The owner of Premier Angling Guide Service in Brethren, Michigan, typically switches from salmon fishing to steelhead trout on Oct. 1 but said big, healthy salmon arrived in the lower Manistee River, just three weeks behind schedule.

“If next year is slow, then 2017 will be tough for people. That’s when I think the big local impact will be,” he said. “If it’s tough next year, it’s going to be tough for four years until they (the DNR) start planting bigger numbers of fish.”

The Record-Eagle in Traverse City, Michigan, contributed to this report.