The Lake Champlain Sea Lamprey Control Program: Opportunities for Adaptive Management

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The Lake Champlain Sea Lamprey Control Program
Opportunities for Adaptive Management

• Eammon Coughlin, Dan Jenkins, Nate Anderson, Eric
  Davis, Tomas Glaspy

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Statement of Purpose

• Reevaluate the sea lamprey control program as
  part of an adaptive management scheme
• Assess alternative non-toxin based treatment
  methods
• Make recommendations for further research and
  program expansion

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Lamprey life history

• Larval Stage
• Transformers
• Spawning

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The Problem

• Health of Lake Champlain and its tributaries is
  important for Vermont and New York residents
• The Lake Champlain basin itself supports a 2.9
  billion dollar a year tourism market that is
  crucial to the economy of both Vermont and New
  York

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Experimental Control Program

• Produced a 3.51 benefit to cost ratio
• Trap catches decreased 80-90 between 1989 and
  1997
• Produced lower lamprey wounding rates and
  increased survival for the 3-4 year old age class
  of lake trout

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Lamprey as a native species

• A paper from the University of Michigan indicates
  that lamprey are most likely native to Lake
  Champlain and have existed here for 11,500 years
• This may raise important management questions as
  it indicates that high lamprey populations may be
  a human induced problem

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The Problem (cont.)

• Uncontrolled lamprey populations pose risk to
  fish populations in the Lake and its tributaries
• Extensive lampricide use can pose a risk to the
  health and integrity of the Lake and its
  tributaries

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Two Main Lampricides

• 3-trifluoro-methyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM)

• niclosamide 5-chloro-N-(2-chloro-4-nitro-phenyl)-2
  -hydroxy-benzamide (Bayer 73)

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TFM and Bayer 73

• EPAs 1999 report reveals that there are
  ecological concerns with the use of these
  compounds since impacts are expected to
  non-target aquatic organism populations however,
  the benefits of controlling the populations of
  sea lamprey are expected to out weigh the risks
  to aquatic organisms.

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Non-Target Species

• Northern Brook Lamprey and American Brook Lamprey
• Stone Cat, log perch, bluntnose minnow
• Crayfish, Mudpuppy, Red-spotted Newt, Mussel
  Species
• Mayfly nymphs

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Alternative Treatment Methods

• traps
• barriers
• sterilization
• attractants and pheromones

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Lamprey Traps

• targets spawning adult lamprey
• most effective where lamprey concentrations are
  highest
• success depends on high catch efficiency

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Barrier Dams

• designed to impede spawning migration of adult
  lamprey
• limited by cost, environmental suitability, or
  problems with restricting migratory fish passage
• most effective when used in conjunction with traps

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Sterilization Program

• requires utilization of highly toxic and
  mutagenic chemical Bisazir
• no sterilization facilities nearby, would have to
  ship adult males to Michigan
• sterilized males would have to significantly
  outnumber non-sterile males to have any impact on
  reproduction potential

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Attractants and Pheromones

• use bile salts produced by larval lamprey to
  attract adults to unsuitable spawning habitat or
  traps
• use lamprey sex pheromones to make sterilized
  males able to outcompete non-sterile males
• both techniques currently being researched and
  not yet viable alternatives

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Conclusions

• Lampricides cause mortality in many non-target
  species
• The long term ecological effects of these poisons
  is unknown
• Research shows that lamprey were once native,
  indicating that there may have been some sort of
  historical balance in their populations

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Recommendations

• promotion and expansion of riparian and wetland
  restoration programs
• further research into long term effects of
  lampricide exposure on individual species,
  ecosystems, and food webs
• modify goals and objectives to embrace
  experimentation and annually decrease lampricide
  usage

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Recommendations (cont.)

• improve and expand barrier and trapping methods
  to increase effectiveness
• develop lampricides that more specifically target
  the physiology and biology of lamprey
• expand public education programs to inform
  citizens and fishery users about lamprey control
  programs

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Acknowledgements

• Team Ramrod would like to thank Ellen Marsden and
  Breck Bowden for taking the time to meet with our
  group and provide information and recommendations
  to guide the development of our project