Michigan Cisco Alliance

The Michigan Cisco Alliance (MCA) was founded in 2024 by a group of dedicated people in the state of Michigan that are concerned about over development and deterioration of lakes in Michigan that hold native populations of Cisco fish. These people are Cisco anglers, trophy pike and musky fisherman, ice fisherman, lake, and watershed experts as well as just regular people concerned about the state of inland lakes in Michigan.

Organization of Anglers

We are an organization of anglers and inland lake and watershed experts dedicated to preserving the inland lake, Michigan Cisco fish, also known as Lake Herring & Tullibee and it’s water quality and place in the ecosystem.

The Cisco Fish

The Cisco fish of Michigan is found in the northern great lakes and only about 160-180 of the 11,037 inland lakes in Michigan.

Cisco Habitation

Cisco fish live in less than 2% of the inland lakes of the upper Midwest region of United States and the lower eastern half of Canada.

Cisco are a fun fish to catch, especially on the ice; they are great table fair, and they are an important part of the ecosystem helping Musky, Pike, Walleye and Lake Trout to become trophy fish. Cisco are a member of the whitefish family, and they are an oily, high calorie, dense bait for large predatory fish.

Our Mission

Today the inland lake Ciscoes here in Michigan are under great pressure to exist as they have for over 12,000 years. Shore destruction, native plants replaced for lawns and lawn chemicals are polluting our inland lakes more than ever and driving the lakes Cisco inhabit to bloom with algae and to push native plants to alter their natural bloom cycle, to deplete the dissolved oxygen in the water and to cause the lakes to become dirtier and accelerate the life of a lake. In the southern part of the state, the agricultural chemical & pesticide runoff from large food crops is an additional source of nutrients, soil runoff and thus contributes more problematic.

Protect

Protecting our Cisco habitats by working with State agencies, landowners, farmers, academics, MCA volunteers & water quality experts to reduce the trend of food crop pollution, lawn development & shoreline destruction on inland lakes in the State of Michigan.

Preserve

Preserving our Cisco habitats by enabling our members & others through future ordinances, regulations & grant programs to complete restoration projects for critical Cisco habitats on the many inland Cisco lakes throughout Michigan. We can preserve this great fishing and aquatic ecosystem resource here in Michigan with effort, manpower & organization working with the MCA.

Educate

Educating other inland lake property owners, farmers, anglers, the media, local governments & anyone else we can get our MCA in front of. MCA will be the driving force to explain the wisdom of taking care of our inland lakes and shorelines & watersheds with the knowledge of pollutants, water oxygen levels, foreign nutrients & healthy shorelines. Healthy and clean water, abundant harvests of all fish in the Cisco lakes and beyond. MCA wishes to educate all to protect the entirety of lake & river watersheds here in Michigan. Today we focus on our inland Cisco lakes.