Carlos Fetterolf died on Saturday after complications from a fall. Fetterolf was an outstanding individual and executive secretary of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, serving with honor and distinction from 1975 to 1992.
Fetterolf led the bi-national Great Lakes Fishery Commission during a time of enormous change in the Great Lakes basin, when water quality problems and fishery degradation threatened the future of the lakes. Ever the optimist, he promoted science, helped create the conditions necessary for large-scale fishery restoration, and facilitated negotiations over the 1981 Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries, a provincial, state, tribal and federal agreement that thrives today and guides cross-border fishery management.
“Carlos Fetterolf was a passionate spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and for the resource,” said Commissioner Bill Taylor, associate director of Michigan Sea Grant and a distinguished professor of fisheries at Michigan State University. “He cared deeply about fish and the people who depend on them for food, recreation, subsistence, and income. As executive secretary, he understood the momentum of the 1970s and 1980s toward Great Lakes recovery and used the commission’s stature as a treaty-based institution to ensure the fishery would rebound in tandem with progress in other critical areas such as water quality and habitat improvements.”
Read the full Great Lakes Fishery Commission Statement
