MARQUETTE, MI -- The oldest fish in the Great Lakes lived through 12 presidential elections, the first human to go to space and the rise of the internet.

Meet Mary Catherine of Klondike Reef in Lake Superior.

She earned the moniker of “oldest known lake trout in the Great Lakes” at 62 years-old.

She was captured in 2023 and recently documented by researchers at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Marquette Fisheries Research Station.

The team was researching age as a variable in tracking population health for fish.

In March 2024, Dan Traynor, fisheries technician at the Marquette Fisheries Research Station, was working in the lab, processing samples collected at the remote offshore area near the Canadian border, 40 miles north of Grand Marais.

Traynor, one of the few experts

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