Wayne Bouffard, a fisheries technician at the Northeast Region's Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Resources Complex, Essex Junction, Vermont, is responsible for the trap modifications. Bouffard has also adopted a design for a one-way hole at the cage opening. This hole allows sea lamprey to enter the trap but not escape. A third modification lets researchers remove the cage — and trapped sea lamprey — from the stream without disturbing the trap set.

The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Resources Complex represents the Service in joint management of Lake Champlain sea lamprey populations with the states of New York and Vermont. Trapping is part of an integrated pest management program to control sea lamprey numbers in the lake. The control program is responsible for increasing angling participation by over one million days and increased expenditures by $4 million annually.