<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the St. Lawrence Seaway was constructed in the 1950s, it opened a whole new era of commerce stretching from the Atlantic coast all the way to Duluth, Minnesota.\u00a0 It also rolled out the red carpet for a host of invasive species.\u00a0 Some (like the sea lamprey) were already here by then while others hitched a ride in the ballast tanks of ocean going freighters (see zebra mussels and round gobies).\u00a0 When the first canal systems opened to by-pass Niagara Falls in the 1920s, the sea lamprey simply swam through the open door into the Great Lakes and began to spread throughout the inland seas all the way in the upper lakes.\u00a0 To give you an idea of how quickly they came to dominate these waters, a July 26 1957 article in <\/span>The Milwaukee Journal <\/span><\/i>reported there was a, \u201cBlind and desperate hunt [to find a way to combat the lamprey invasion]. \u00a0 The lamprey had practically wiped out the lake trout in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and threatened to do the same thing in Lake Superior.\u201d\u00a0 The piece was written to announce the first successful use of chemical lampricide to stem the tide and it was front page news.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My first recollections of lamprey go back to the early 1960s when we would cross the Silver River bridge on the Townline Road in Baraga County.\u00a0 We took this route to our camp where the Silver opened into the foot of Huron Bay.\u00a0 Just upstream from the bridge, there was a cable strung across the river with metal rods extending down into the river.\u00a0 Dad explained it was a \u2018weir\u2019 designed to keep lamprey from migrating upriver to spawn.\u00a0 On later occasions, we would see the river run yellow for a few days.\u00a0 The postings at the boat landing just downstream from the weir announced the color change was from the lampricide being used to further control the spread of the eel like invaders.\u00a0 Even if it was advertised as \u2018non-toxic to humans or pets\u2019, we still avoided swimming in the river for a few days until it cleared up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The weir was removed at some point but in the 1990s, we were reminded that the lamprey suppression efforts were still ongoing.\u00a0 We were on our usual three week mid-summer stay at The Swamp when a white truck pulled up in front of the porch.\u00a0 I went out and couldn\u2019t help but notice that behind the pickup there was another one with a utility trailer in tow, a third with a boat and trailer attached, and a fourth with a crew cab filled with people.\u00a0 All were sporting the logo of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission Sea Lamprey Control unit.\u00a0 The man in the lead truck hopped out and asked, \u201cWhere is the boat landing?\u201d\u00a0 When I pointed up river and said, \u201cAbout a half mile that-a-way on the other side of the river,\u201d he looked at me like I had grown another head.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The lamprey guy pulled a USGS Topographic Map from the cab and pointed at our location and said, \u201cNo, the map said it is right here.\u201d\u00a0 I had used United States Geological Survey maps in my Geography\/Earth Science classes for many years.\u00a0 I had also sold them when I was the Geography Department Map Librarian at Northern Michigan University in 1979-80.\u00a0 Their location confusion was immediately apparent.\u00a0 During the Regan administration, the United States Geographic Survey began exploring the conversion of their topographic quadrangles from English units to Metric.\u00a0 They produced some provisional maps (maps that would be ground tested and proofed before being finalized for mass printing) but later abandoned the idea of a wholesale change altogether.\u00a0 The map the lamprey team was using was one of the provisional maps that was never actually released for public use.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI see the problem,\u201d\u00a0 I told him.\u00a0 \u201cWhen these provisional maps were circulated for comments, I had written to the USGS that they had erroneously marked our property as a public boat launch.\u00a0 We have been here since 1958 and it never was a public launch site.\u00a0 The public site\u00a0 is up river on the Skanee Road side just past the Townline Road turn off.\u201d\u00a0 As it began to sink in, he asked, \u201cAre you sure?\u201d so I pointed to our dock and asked in return, \u201cDo you think this looks like a public boat launch?\u201d\u00a0 Once we cleared up the confusion, they had to back their vehicles and trailers out to the main road as there wasn\u2019t room to turn around where we stood talking. As a courtesy, I remind him to keep to the outside of the river bends where the deeper channel was located:\u00a0 \u201cThere is a big sandbar across the mouth of the river you won\u2019t be able to see at high tide.\u201d\u00a0 That part didn\u2019t sink in and we watched them roar up the middle of the river and get stranded a couple of times before they moved on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The successful lampricide trial announced by the <\/span>Milwaukee Journal <\/span><\/i>was done by the Hammond Bay Biological Station (located on Lake Huron about 30 miles southeast of Cheboygan, Michigan).\u00a0 A more recent article marking the events of 80 years ago (from the August 7, 2025 <\/span>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – <\/span><\/i>\u2018The Fight Continues) puts some historical perspective on the battle for the Great Lakes.\u00a0 Author Andrew Montequin puts it bluntly:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not an exaggeration to say this research station saved the Great Lakes fishery.\u201d\u00a0 According to Montequin, the nature of the beast, so to speak, makes the stakes in the lamprey suppression very high:\u00a0 \u201cEach sea lamprey feeds on about 40 pounds of fish over their lifetime and females typically lay up to 100,000 eggs.\u00a0 It is no surprise sea lampreys pose a threat to the $5 to $7\u00a0 BILLION Great Lakes fishing industry (the amount varies depending on which source one consults).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Montequin\u2019s article focused on the Cheybogan area in part because of the historic nature of the area\u2019s involvement in the lamprey suppression effort.\u00a0 The numbers gathered by current lamprey suppression efforts in the same area provide insight to the nature of the ongoing battle.\u00a0 He notes that in just three nearby streams, including the Cheybogan River, traps recently pulled in 14,000 adult sea lamprey over a two week period.\u00a0 Nick Johnson, director of SupCon (The Great Lakes Fishery Commission\u2019s Supplementary Lamprey Control Initiative) did the math comparing his family\u2019s fish consumption to that of the lamprey\u2019s:\u00a0 \u201cThis past winter, when the lake froze over, we caught 100 pounds of lake trout in one day.\u00a0 People would tease me that the trout would go extinct if we kept doing that.\u00a0 If we did this every day, it would take 15 years straight to kill as many trout as the lampreys we caught here in just 14 days.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a matter of coincidence, I happened to see a re-run of Mike Rowe\u2019s popular <\/span>Dirty Jobs<\/span><\/i> from November of 2010.\u00a0 Part of this episode had him in \u2018northern Michigan\u2019 learning how to be a \u2018lamprey exterminator\u2019. \u00a0 \u2018Northern Michigan\u2019 in this case was probably the same area Montequin was writing about.\u00a0 This geographic description isn\u2019t unusual;\u00a0 for some strange reason many people can\u2019t wrap their heads around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan being farther north than northern Lower Michigan.\u00a0 Go figure, but I digress.\u00a0 In this segment, Rowe was attached to a Fish and Wildlife team and got to work on several steps in the process.\u00a0 Using portable backpacks with probes, he was shown how to shock the stream to get the juvenile lamprey to rise out of the mud so they could be scooped up for a census.\u00a0 These numbers are then\u00a0 used to establish which type of eradication method is needed for that stream.\u00a0 Adult lamprey are removed from traps, sorted by sex, and then either sterilized (the males) or packaged for further study and educational purposes (the females).\u00a0 Some of the adults captured were termed \u2018beepers\u2019 as the tracking beacons they had received previously set off a detection device.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I wish they had the backpack shockers available back in the 1970s.\u00a0 When my brother was working on his Master of Arts degree in Biology at Northern Michigan University, he did his thesis about fish species in the lakes of the McCormick Track near Michigamme.\u00a0 To get a census on those species he used a combination of traps and electro-shocking so he could tally the species in each lake (before returning them to their home waters).\u00a0 Shocking a lake took a little more equipment so he rigged a flat bottom boat with a platform holding two shocking booms and a portable generator to run them.\u00a0 It worked great, but there was a down side.\u00a0 Not all of the lakes could be reached by road and we ended up hauling all the equipment down foot trails, some as far as a quarter mile from the nearest road.\u00a0 We actually decided the move between two of the lakes was easiest to accomplish by dragging the boat up a small connecting stream.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The lakes in the McCormick track are designated \u2018no motors allowed\u2019 so Ron got some unpleasant gestures from hikers.\u00a0 They had no way to know he was there with the proper permission to operate an outboard motor on these lakes.\u00a0 Hauling the shocking boat cross country was an interesting project (not necessarily fun) and helping Ron out over the summer did have some bonuses.\u00a0 It allowed us to get a close up look at the former McCormick lodge and associated buildings.\u00a0 Not many years later, they were dismantled and removed from the area leaving the McCormick track a limited access wilderness area.\u00a0 Watching Mike Rowe accidentally cross his positive and negative booms (thus shutting down his backpack shocker) reminded me of Ron\u2019s sage advice:\u00a0 \u201cDo not let the booms touch – that would be bad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Reporter Madeline Heim wrote an article in the same Milwaukee Journal Sentinel all about a more recent invasive species invader.\u00a0 Asian carp have been slowly working their way up the Mississippi River tributaries and the states are doing everything they can to keep them from spreading into the Great Lakes.\u00a0 Asian carp (silver, grass, and bighead varieties) were brought to this country as a way to control plant growth in southern ponds.\u00a0 Flooding allowed a small population to escape into the wild thus producing an explosion in their population.\u00a0 They are fast breeding species that can negatively impact native fish by competing for food and space.\u00a0 Their large numbers can also\u00a0 degrade water quality which in turn affects sensitive species like freshwater mussels.\u00a0 Silver carp pose a different kind of danger:\u00a0 when agitated by the sound of outboard motors, they have been known to jump out of the water.\u00a0 When a flying carp lands in a passing boat, it does more than just startle the boaters. Water skiers and those operating jetskis are also at risk.\u00a0 Imagine being impacted by a flying fish without wings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An invasive fish consultant from the Minnesota DNR named Grace Loppnow told Heim, \u201cAt this point, we don\u2019t have an abundance [of the invasive carp] that\u2019s causing a problem.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to keep it that way.\u201d\u00a0 The newest method\u00a0 to try and limit the spread of Asian carp sounds a little backward to the lay-person:\u00a0 feed them!\u00a0 Researchers are installing floating feeders at selected locations that will lure bighead and silver carp.\u00a0 By dispensing four or five pounds of a carp\u2019s favorite food consisting of pelletized nutrient rich algae, they are hoping to train them to visit regularly.\u00a0 If the fish can be lured to visit the floating feeders, commercial fishermen will follow to catch them, thus reducing the population.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What will they do with the fish harvested?\u00a0 These will be donated to zoos and raptor centers which would use them as food.\u00a0 Human consumption has been studied and the flesh compares to white fish.\u00a0 It is said to be white, flaky, and mild-tasting but it does have fine bones that some find undesirable.\u00a0 Rebranding them as \u2018Copi\u2019 to encourage human consumption has also been tried by some states and research organizations.\u00a0 If large enough numbers can be harvested, they could also be processed for use in the pet food industry.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The \u2018feed the pests\u2019 method is only the latest attempt at controlling the Asian carp.\u00a0 According to Heim, \u201cScientists have worked for decades to find ways to control invasive carp populations – installing barriers that deter the fish with sounds and bubbles, using special nets to snag fish that jump out of the water, and using tags to track them so their movements can be monitored.\u00a0 They have even tried to use remote-controlled kayaks to herd them to specific locations.\u00a0 They have proved to be hard to manage in areas where the Mississippi River is wide with many hiding places as it is near LaCrosse, Wisconsin.\u00a0 In colder months, Loppnow told her that the fish are sluggish and travel in packs, making them easier to round up.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Will baiting work as a method for controlling the spread of this invasive species?\u00a0 Only time will tell.\u00a0 As with continuing efforts to control sea lamprey, the battle to control invasive species isn\u2019t over by a long shot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 I couldn’t find any music by a band called The Lamprey so you will have to settle for The Eels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the St. Lawrence Seaway was constructed in the 1950s, it opened a whole new era of commerce stretching from the Atlantic coast all the way to Duluth, Minnesota.\u00a0 It also rolled out the red carpet for a host of invasive species.\u00a0 Some (like the sea lamprey) were already here by then while others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3651"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3654,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions\/3654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}