Lake Size: 9,940 sq mi (25,744 km) Shoreline Length (Miles): 850 mi (1,370 km) Deepest Depth: 210 feet Latitude: 42.2 Longitude: -81.2 Lake Level Above Sea Level: 571 ft (174 m) Counties: Multiple Cities: Cleveland, Buffalo
Information: At the time of European contact, there were several groups of Iroquoian cultures living around the shores of the eastern end of the lake. The Erie tribe (from whom the lake takes its name) lived along the southern edge, while the Neutrals (also known as Attawandaron) lived along the northern shore. Both tribes were conquered and assimilated by their hostile eastern neighbors, the Iroquois Confederacy between AD 1651 and 1657, in what is referred to as part of the Beaver Wars. For decades after those wars, the land around eastern Lake Erie was claimed and utilized by the Iroquois as a hunting ground. As the power of the Iroquois waned during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, several other, mainly Anishinaabe Native American tribes, displaced them from the territories they claimed on the north shore of the lake.
Fishing
Business
Miscellaneous Info
Lake Erie is home to one of the world's largest freshwater commercial fisheries. Once a mainstay of communities around the lake, commercial fishing is now predominantly based in Canadian communities, with a much smaller fishery—largely restricted to yellow perch—in Ohio. The Ontario fishery is one of the most intensively managed in the world. It was one of the first fisheries in the world managed on individual transferable quotas and features mandatory daily catch reporting and intensive auditing of the catch reporting system. Still, the commercial fishery is the target of critics who would like to see the lake managed for the exclusive benefit of sport fishing and the various industries serving the sport fishery. Commercial landings are dominated by yellow perch and walleye, with substantial quantities of rainbow smelt and white bass also taken. Anglers target walleye and yellow perch, with some effort directed at rainbow trout. A variety of other species are taken in smaller quantities by both commercial and sport fleets. Management of the fishery is by consensus of all management agencies with an interest in the resource (the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan and the province of Ontario) under the mandate of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which is driven by comprehensive fisheries assessment programs and sophisticated mathematical modeling systems. The Commission remains the source of considerable recrimination, primarily from United States based angler and charter fishing groups with a historical antipathy to the commercial fishery. This conflict is complex, dating from the 1960s, with in U.S. fisheries management that led to elimination of commercial fishing in most U.S. Great Lakes states. The process began in Michigan, and its evolution is well documented in Szylvian (2004), using Lake Michigan as a case study. The underlying issues are universal, wherever sport and commercial fishing coexist, but their persistence in the Lake Erie context, one of the most intensively scrutinized and managed fisheries, suggests that these conflicts are cultural, not scientific, and therefore not resolvable by reference to ecological data. These debates are largely driven by social, political and economic issues, not ecology. The lake consists of a long list of well established introduced species. Common non-indigenous fish species include the rainbow smelt, alewife, white perch and common carp. Non-native sport fish such as rainbow trout and brown trout are stocked specifically for anglers to catch. Attempts failed to stock coho salmon and its numbers are once again dwindling.The lake has recently been plagued with a number of invasive species, including Zebra and quagga mussels, the goby and the grass carp. Zebra mussels and gobies have been credited with the increased population and size of smallmouth bass in Lake Erie.
Lake Erie (pronounced /ˈiri/) (French: Lac Érié) is the fourth largest lake (by surface area) of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the thirteenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the Canadian province of Ontario, on the south by the U.S. states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and on the west by the state of Michigan. The lake is named after the Erie tribe of Native Americans who lived along its southern shore.
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