Zombie Fish Are Starving in the Depths of Lake Superior
More than half of the lake trout living deep in the lake are emaciated, suggesting an ecological problem is growing
What’s going on in the inky black of the deepest Great Lake? Zombie fish and 10-cent deposits are pretty much the only things lurking in the frigid depths.
I was at a restaurant with my family, and my sister asked something me: “Did you see they went down to the deepest part of Lake Superior?” I hadn’t.
“They found a Busch can.”
Watching the livestream later, there it was: A beautifully preserved aluminum hull with a logo from another time, a relic and unlikely explorer of Superior Maximus, the deepest point in Lake Superior.
It made me thirsty, I won’t deny it. But mostly it made me sad that we don’t have the same thirst for strong branding. We’ve sacrificed taste for bland modernity.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources, meanwhile, was looking for monsters. Specifically, they were hunting the zombie version of siscowet lake trout 1,300 feet under the surface.
The DNR says it’s not sure the zombie lake trout have something virological or ecological making them look unwell.
Perhaps there’s not quite enough food to go around that far down in the depths of Superior, where it’s always about 38 degrees Fahrenheit. But the DNR is concerned about zombie fish population growing.
“The overall incidence of ‘zombie’ siscowet in deep water has risen from approximately 3% in 2015 to about 20% in 2024 and 2025,” the DNR said in a release.
In the DNR’s 2024 survey, 37% of the fish sample were zombies. Last year, 54% of the siscowet were emaciated.
DNR research biologist Shawn Sitar says the facts have been taken out of context and there’s no reason to freak out just yet.
“While this trend is cause for further investigation, it’s not cause for alarm,” Sitar said.
It seems some things are changing in Lake Superior’s own Mariana Trench. But the Busch can will remain forever.
