Sea lamprey populations increased dramatically in Lake Erie in 2009 and have since remained well above target levels despite intensified control efforts. An emerging hypothesis to explain increased sea lamprey abundance in Lake Erie and resilience to traditional control methods is that sea lamprey recruitment and survival have recently increased in the Lake Huron-to-Lake Erie Corridor (i.e., St. Clair and Detroit rivers, Lake St. Clair, and tributaries, hereafter HEC). Despite increased efforts to control known sea lamprey producing streams and identify any new sources, adult sea lampreys have continued to proliferate in Lake Erie. This suggests that increased recruitment of sea lampreys to Lake Erie from the HEC may be an important source and recent phenomenon, perhaps triggered by recent fish habitat restoration efforts, improved water quality, or both. Indeed, larval assessments by DFO and USFWS during 2012–2014 have shown that larval sea lampreys are broadly distributed in low densities over much of the HEC. Due to the area and volume of larval sea lamprey habitat in the HEC, alternative (non-lampricide) control strategies (e.g., sterile male releases, interception traps, push-pull strategies) may be important to the future of sea lamprey control in the HEC. Emerging technologies (e.g., pheromones, alarm substances, electrical guidance) offer hope to improve the ability to capture and assess sea lamprey populations within the HEC, but knowledge of migration routes, spawning locations, and adult abundance will be necessary to direct any future alternative control efforts and to facilitate timely implementation when alternative technologies become available. We propose to use acoustic telemetry to determine the spatial distribution of adult sea lampreys during upstream migration and spawning within the HEC. A pilot study conducted during 2014 suggested that most sea lampreys in the HEC spawned in the St. Clair River, but receiver coverage limited inferences to large regions of the study area, and larger sample sizes are needed to obtain estimates with useful levels of precision. Recent telemetry studies in the St. Marys and Mississagi rivers have also shown that telemetry is well-suited to inferences about migration pathways and spawning locations.
- EVALUATING THE RISKS AND POTENTIAL OF GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES FOR MANAGING THE IMPACTS OF SEA LAMPREYS IN THE GREAT LAKES
- Habitat Supply and Trophic Transfer in Lake Superior
- Effects of Water Alkalinity, pH, and Dosing Regimen on Lake Sturgeon Sensitivity to the Lampricide, 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM).
- Are Lake Trout in an Introduced Population Morphologically andGenetically Segregated by Depth?
- Immunoaffinity: A Novel Approach for Identifying Biologically Active Environmental Estrogens in Great Lakes Coastal Estuaries
- Effects of Physical and Chemical Stressors on Survival of the Resting Egg Stage of Bythotrephes longimanus
- TESTING ASSUMPTIONS REQUIRED TO ESTIMATE LAKE-WIDE PARASITIC SEA LAMPREY ABUNDANCE
- Enhancing Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) Degradation in Great Lakes Sediment
- BIOASSAY DIRECTED ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A NATURAL SEA LAMPREY DETERRENT
- Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Surveillance Program (Michigan)
General
Monitoring
Aquatic Nuisance Species
General
- Scope of Study
Scope of StudyField Investigation
- Scale of Phenomena
Scale of PhenomenaOrganismPopulation
- Impact of Pollutants
- Processes
- Land Use and Habitat
- Resource Management
Resource ManagementFisheries
- Socio-Economic
- State / Province
State ProvinceMichiganOhioOntario
- Lake Basin / Connecting Channels
Lake Basin Connecting ChannelsDetroit RiverLake Erie
Monitoring
- Purpose of Project
Purpose of ProjectSpecial Survey
- Frequency
- Number of Sampling Entities
- Data Availability
Data AvailabilityDigitalGeo-referenced
- Region Being Monitored
Region Being MonitoredNear and OpenShore Waters
- Resource Being Monitored
Resource Being MonitoredFisheries
- Program Drivers
- Beneficial Use Impairment Assessments
Aquatic Nuisance Species
- Biology And Life History
Biology And Life HistoryPopulation Dynamics
- Control And Mitigation
- Ecosystem Effects
- Prevention and Introduction
- Socio-economic Consideration and Analysis
- Spread of Established ANS Populations
Spread of Established ANS PopulationsRange of Spread