Siskiwit Lake is the largest lake on

Isle Royale Isle Royale (, ) is an Islands of the Great Lakes, island of the Great Lakes located in the northwest of Lake Superior and part of the U.S. state of Michigan. The island and the 450 surrounding smaller islands and waters make up Isle Royale Na ...

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. in area, the lake has cold, clear water which is relatively low in nutrients. Tributaries include the

Little Siskiwit River The Little Siskiwit River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 1, 2012 river on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, in the U.S. state of Michigan. See also *List of rivers ...

, and the lake's outlet is the Siskiwit River which flows into Lake Superior. Siskiwit Lake is available for fishing, with restrictions (no motorized boats, no natural bait).

Lake Trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater Salvelinus, char living mainly in lakes in Northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, laker, and grey trout. In Lake Sup ...

Brook Trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

Rainbow Trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

, and

Yellow Perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...

are found in the lake. A 2004 study of

toxaphene Toxaphene was an insecticide used primarily for cotton in the southern United States during the late 1960s and the 1970s. Toxaphene is a mixture of over 670 different chemicals and is produced by reacting chlorine gas with camphene. It can be mo ...

concentrations found that concentrations were lower in Siskiwit Lake trout than in Lake Superior trout, possibly due to shorter food chains and greater reliance on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

or other

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

invertebrates. Siskiwit Lake contains several

lake island A lake island is any landmass within a lake. It is a type of inland island. Lake islands may form a lake archipelago. Formation Lake islands may form in numerous ways. They may occur through a build-up of sedimentation as shoals, and become t ...

s, including Eagle Nest Island, Teakettle Island, Lost and Found Island, and Ryan Island (the largest).

Common loon The common loon or great northern diver (''Gavia immer'') is a large member of the loon, or diver, family (biology), family of birds. Reproduction, Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purpli ...

s nest and breed on some of these islands. Siskiwit Lake and Ryan Island were part of the Moose Boulder hoax, which claimed that there was an exposed boulder in a seasonal pond on Ryan Island. This would have made that boulder the largest "island" in the largest "lake" on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake, but in 2020 this was confirmed to be a hoax: Ryan Island has no such pond.

References

{{authority control Siskiwit Bodies of water of Keweenaw County, Michigan Isle Royale