Lake Huron, MI

Lake Huron is one of the five traditional Great Lakes of North America. Geologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States.

Lake Huron is the second largest of the Great Lakes, with a surface area of 59,596 km2 (23,010 sq mi) making it the third largest fresh water lake on earth (fourth largest lake if the saline Caspian Sea is included). It contains a volume of 3,540 km3 (850 cubic miles), and a shoreline length of 3,827 mi (6,157 km).

The surface of Lake Huron is 577 ft (176 m) above sea level. The lake's average depth is 195 ft (59 m), while the maximum depth is 750 ft (229 m). It has a length of 206 mi (332 km) and a greatest breadth of 183 mi (245 km).

Important cities on Lake Huron include: Goderich, Sarnia, Bay City, Alpena, Rogers City, Cheboygan, St. Ignace, and Port Huron.[citation needed]

A notable feature of the lake is Manitoulin Island, which separates the North Channel and Georgian Bay from Lake Huron's main body of water. It is the world's largest freshwater island.[2]

Like all of the Great Lakes, the ecology of Lake Huron has undergone drastic changes in the last century. The lake originally supported a native deepwater fish community dominated by lake trout, which fed on a number of deepwater ciscos as well as sculpins and other native fishes. Several invasive species, including sea lamprey, alewife and rainbow smelt, became abundant in the lake by the 1930s. The major native top predator, lake trout, were virtually extirpated from the lake by 1950 due to a combination of overfishing and the effects of sea lamprey. Several species of deepwater ciscos were also extirpated from the lake by the 1960s; the only remaining native deepwater cisco is the bloater. Nonnative Pacific salmon have been stocked in the lake since the 1960s, and lake trout have also been stocked in an attempt to rehabilitate the species, although little natural reproduction of stocked trout has been observed.