I didn’t really expect the legal discussion in starting this thread, but let’s go with it. What about a pier out into the lake that blocks access to a small portion of the public zone? Not a real issue of access because you can walk around, but how would one analyze that legally?
In addition, the lake is in a longish low water stage. The beaches are very big right now. Any homeowner who built a fence down to the waterlevel line even as recently as a few years ago will by now probably have at least several additional unfenced yards before the water starts. The water/wind/sand environment also takes it toll on fences–the ones that are about are often dilapidated. It is more typical to see No Trespassing signs–if I was a lucky homeowner I would feel that a fence defeated the beauty of the site.
As far as pollution goes, the lake is again in a lengthening good phase, at least as far as the naked eye can see. Very little trash/scum/oiliness, and even the dead alewives are gone. The beaches in Chicago look great. Some of the clearwater, I hear, is due to the Zebra mussels and so is therefore the result of a negative environmental factor. Also, there are still beach closures in hot weather due to e coli problems. They still say that pregnant women should eat too many lake fish. But it looks a whole lot better than in the memorable past. It really is gorgeous right now.
Do people eat the shellfish from lake Michigan? Are the edible?
It’s covered in a different part of the last thing I linked. Basically the rights of riparian owners include the right to “wharf out,” so that’s generally ok.
After all the talk of easement between low and high water marks, under what circumstances can the riparian landowner start screaming in Klingon and attack with a Batleth?
I wrestled with my better sense and lost.
slinks away.
Had a similar thought, but resisted the temptation. Thanks for taking one for the team.
I’m not aware of any shellfish that are taken in commercial quantities. Clams of any size and lobsters don’t exist in these freshwater lakes (never did, AFAIK). The largest mussel is the non-native Quagga or Zebra, the size of a thumbnail, and mostly unwelcome, having been transported from the Black Sea rather recently.
Lamprey eels, which arrived upstream with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, are not harvested for human food, but killed with chemicals, since they prey on fish humans like.
The Hmong harvest smelt in the spring, but this is more of a family business than a commercial one, I believe, and the season is very brief.
There are species of trash fish like carp and alewives that no one has yet been able to harvest for any commercial purpose, even fertilizer.
Needless to say, there are no whales, dolphins or other large mammals.
I have seen small crayfish in creeks but nothing big enough to be worth eating. The main aquatic harvest is in fish: whitefish, bass, salmon (seeded, not native, but they thrive), lake trout, perch, and in some inland lakes, sturgeon, which has become extinct in the Great Lakes. There’s much sport fishing in all the Great Lakes, but most of the remaining commercial fishing is in Superior, very little in Michigan. Commercial fishing’s heyday peaked 60 years ago in Michigan, earlier in the smaller, eastern lakes.
RE: Piers & docks
It is very difficult in Wisconsin to get the permits to build a pier into the water now. Most piers were built before current, heavy-handed zoning and regulations, and are grandfathered. There are those (usually non-shore landowners) who want ALL piers removed and no new ones built, so there is a constant legal battle.
Nope. Both the zebra mussels, and the quagga mussels which have replaced them for the most part, are invaders, and not even tasty ones!
How do you know? Have you ever tasted one?
Mmmmm…deep-fried quaggas with melted butter and hot sauce…
OK, now I know you’re lying! 
BTW, there used to be commercial alewife harvesting in Lake Michigan. Used for fertilizer/cat food. It was halted when the trout and salmon population dropped, for fear that their food supply was endangered.
If this thread gets any further Hijacked, we’ll be in Cuba, but, as I know you’ve an interest, QtM, I’ve read that Quagga mussels have made their way as far south as Arizona’s Lake Pleasant.