Marquette Biological Station Sea Lamprey Control Staff hosted Associate Director of the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources Associate Director Peter Annin and 13 regional journalists, July 23-24, 2006. The visit will significantly raise media and public awareness of sea lamprey control activities in the Great Lakes. 

Michael Siefkes, Fishery Biologist and Bruce Eldrige, Biological Science Aid, hosted the group.

The Institute is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a tax exempt, nonprofit educational foundation, and an independent public charity, which pursues higher standards of news coverage of natural resources and the environment through expedition-style programs of professional development. 

The July program targeted mid-career journalists and focused on issues affecting the Lake Michigan and Huron watersheds.

Roger Bergstedt, Station Supervisor of the USGS Hammond Bay Biological Station also hosted the IJNR group.

The IJNR group visited the Sea Lamprey Sterilization Facility located at Hammond Bay Biological Station, and learned about the invasive sea lamprey and the importance of sea lamprey control on fish community ecology in the Great Lakes. 

The group also learned about current control methods and research into emerging alternative control strategies. 

Siefkes and Eldrige led a tour of facilities used to sterilize male sea lampreys and demonstrated operation of key sterilization equipment.  Siefkes also gave a presentation covering sterilization operations and sea lamprey control efforts in the St. Marys River. 

In addition, Bergstedt led a tour of Hammond Bay Biological Station and gave a presentation covering the history of the sea lamprey invasion and control program, and an overview of current research and emerging control techniques. 

This outreach will result in increased media interest in the sea lamprey control and research programs.

The sea lamprey control program continues to work closely with partners to control populations of sea lampreys in the Great Lakes to protect the fishery and related economic activities within the basin, an estimated annual benefit of $4 to $6 billion per year to the region.  The Fish and Wildlife Service delivers a program of integrated sea lamprey control in U.S. waters of the Great Lakes as a contracted agent of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.