Something Spectacular: My Great Lakes Salmon Story by Howard A. Tanner

Abstract

Book Reviews 151 Howard A. Tanner. Something Spectacular: My Great Lakes Salmon Story. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2019. Pp. 268. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth: $39.95. When I was approximately ten years old, my parents treated me to a visit to Cedar Point, the Ohio-based amusement park on the shores of Lake Erie. I recall the menu at one of the park’s eateries offering a special fish plate—I believe it was walleye. The listing in the menu included a brief but cryptic warning about overindulging in fish from the Great Lakes due to contamination. The warning reflected the public tenor of the 1970s and early 1980s in many lakeside communities, a recognition that the Great Lakes were a polluted, embattled resource. In his new book, Something Spectacular: My Great Lakes Salmon Story, Howard A. Tanner briefly discusses the concerns he and other colleagues shared regarding the persistence of DDT-derived pesticides in the lakes and the threat those derivatives posed to the economic viability of the new salmon sport fishery. While not the focus of his work, the historical changes connected to the introduction of Pacific salmon are just as important. Something Spectacular is as much memoir as historical study, written from the perspective of the person at the center of Pacific salmon introductions into the Great Lakes system. Tanner’s work is written from a perspective reflected in its title, that the recreational fishery and the managerial changes that sanctioned and followed the first salmon introductions were almost entirely positive. If viewed through an anthropocentric and economic lens, one could make a strong case in that regard. Included with his central narrative are Tanner’s connected recollections of his long professional life working in fisheries science and management, his vivid memories regarding service in World War II, and everyday shared experiences and professional work alongside his wife, Helen. With enduring and serious questions regarding the logic of humanintroduced exotic species into the ecologically embattled Great Lakes, an important consideration is that at least equally “spectacular” stories exist in the historical subplots and residual changes influenced or brought about through the audacious efforts of Tanner and his colleagues. The fishery’s stimulus on the banning of DDT in Michigan and subsequent reductions in Great Lakes fish toxicology are one example. There are others. That the fishery enforcement efforts of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources and its allies led (to Tanner’s continued dismay) to the courts’ woefully belated recognition and legal protection of the treatyguaranteed rights of the sovereign Great Lakes Indian Nations was 152 The Michigan Historical Review another arguably “spectacular” outcome. In that case and others, readers will need to turn to other works, such as Robert Doherty’s Disputed Waters: Native Americans and the Great Lakes Fishery, for a more complete picture. Other tangential developments are important considerations when examining this story as a whole. With the continued and evolving dialogue regarding intentional human introductions of exotic species into existent ecosystems, Something Spectacular recounts what was perhaps the most significant introductions attempted in the Great Lakes, written from the perspective of the fishery scientist at its center. This is an important and accessibly written work. It is especially recommended for anyone interested in the Great Lakes, water research, fisheries, or the introduction of exotic species. Kent LaCombe University of California, Riverside Brian C. Wilson. John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2018. Pp. 326. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth: $34.99. Many Michiganders are aware of John E. Fetzer’s life as a broadcaster and pioneer in local radio (he founded WKZO), as a businessman and philanthropist (he made the Forbes list of 400 wealthiest people in America), and as owner of the Detroit Tigers (with whom he won the World Series in 1968), but few are aware of his lifelong eclectic religious journey. This book is not a biography in the usual sense but instead probes the soul of a man who believed the world is bigger, and could potentially be better, than any one faith tradition imagines. Forward-thinking in his professional life, Fetzer was even more progressive in his private...