The water being crystal clear looks cool, but it's an ecological disaster for larger fish in the food chain that depend on the turbidity of the water for ambushing smaller fish.
wrong. The great lakes has been an ecological experiment since the St. Lawrence seaway was opened and continued to be that when the Chicago river was reversed.
There are almost no "native" species left in any of the lakes (excluding superior).
If you want sustainable native great lakes ecology you need to cut them off from the oceans, re-reverse the flow of the Chicago and do a one-off massive trout and other native fish stocking. None of that is ever going to happen so until then we can keep experimenting with ecology and in that case Zebra muscles is much better than massive population booms and busts of alewives or other invasive fish species (Salmon were originally introduced to help keep the alewife population down)
It’s true it’s been an experiment since the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened, but there are plenty of native species left in the Great Lakes.
This includes everything from walleye, lake trout, and perch all the way down to daphnia and diatoms.
The problems for native species in the Great Lakes has been driven by the introduction of zebra mussels, quagga mussels, the round goby, and spiny water flea (bythotrephes) for native food sources.
These new species have interrupted the food chain and therefore the reproductive fitness for many native species which further decimates the natural Great Lakes ecosystem.
Walleye are native and have been one of the hardest-hit by the loss of turbidity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walleye also Perch, Pike and a bunch of other species.. and I never fished for them but I know there are healthy populations of trout in the western Great Lakes, too.
Thats probably True. But to what extent will nature mitigate this, and offset the negative with positives. For example:
1) Clearer water means that light reaches deeper. Potentially allowing more aquatic plants to grow over huge new areas. Providing new habitat, food sources and shelter for fish.
2) Zebra mussels might trap some chemicals like PCBs. And accumulate them in their shells. Once the mussel dies, they fall to the bottom, and might permanently lock up them up into the sediment.
Eventually, sure. Not on human timescales, though. The new habitat is for species that don’t exist in that lake (since it’s full of fish adapted to how it was).
Crystal clear water also means that there is a scarcity of nutrients, otherwise algae would grow.
But this isn't necessarily a desaster, not all lakes are equal in their conditions for various species. This might just be what the lakes looked like for the longest time.
Btw., there are large fish hunting smaller ones in clear water. Most extreme example are sharks.
Most freshwater species are "ambush predators". Edges, shadows, eddies, etc. That's why those things are generally more productive fishing spots. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that even larger shark species tend to hunt around edges like thermoclines.
