Ludington Biological Station employee Hank Cupp applies lampricide to a backwater during a recent treatment of the Manistee River, Manistee County, Michigan. - Photo by Jeff Slade

Ludington Biological Station Technician Jason Krebill checks the application rate of lampricide during recent treatment of the Pere Marquette River, Mason County, Michigan. - Photo by Ellie Koon

Ludington Biological Station Technician Danya Sanders prepares a slurry of Bayluscide, a lampricide used during a recent treatment of the Pere Marquette River, Mason County, Michigan. Bayluscide is used in combination with TFM, another lampricide, to control sea lamprey populations in Great Lakes tributaries. - Photo by Ellie Koon

The Service’s Sea Lamprey Control Program staff treated seven Great Lakes streams (four in Lake Michigan and three in Lake Superior) with lampricide to eliminate larval sea lamprey populations, during July and August. 

These treatments destroyed an estimated 2,545,100 sea lampreys including about 128,300 that would have metamorphosed to the parasitic phase in 2006 and entered the Great Lakes.  Each parasitic phase sea lamprey would have been capable of killing upwards of 40 pounds of lake trout during its year-long life in the lakes. 

The treatment of the Pere Marquette River (Lake Michigan tributary) involved volunteers of the Pere Marquette Watershed Council, a partner group dedicated to preservation of this important natural resource.  The Council is supportive of sea lamprey management in the river and members volunteered to assist in the collection of dead and dying sea lamprey larvae to aid in the evaluation of treatment effectiveness.

The Sea Lamprey program is conducted under contract with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.  The success continues to ensure sport fish rehabilitation in the Great Lakes and protects a fishery valued at more than $4 billion.