After their food supply collapsed in 2003, the Chinook salmon population rapidly declined in Lake Huron and has never fully recovered. Instead, native predator fish have flourished, and according to biologists, have created a more diversified fishery.

The Chinook salmon population in Lake Huron experienced a catastrophic collapse in 2004 from which it has never fully recovered. The primary cause was a "bottom-up" ecological shift triggered by invasive Zebra and Quagga mussels. These mussels filtered out the plankton that sustained Alewives, the primary food source for salmon. When the alewife population crashed, the salmon—which are highly specialized predators that struggle to eat other fish—starved or failed to reproduce. By 2026, Lake Huron has transitioned into a more "native" fishery; while Chinook salmon are still present in small numbers through natural reproduction, the lake is now dominated by Lake Trout and Walleye, which are more resilient and capable of eating a wider variety of prey fish like Round Gobies.