The Eurasian ruffe, an exotic, invasive, perch-like fish, was accidentally introduced into the Duluth-Superior Harbor, Minnesota/Wisconsin, Lake Superior, during the mid 1980s.  The Ruffe Control Committee of the National Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force developed eight management objectives within the Ruffe Control Plan to prevent/delay the spread of ruffe; surveillance is one of these objectives. 

Three Service fishery resource offices and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources are actively involved in monitoring the spread of ruffe and any other AIS that are observed incidentally in all the Great Lakes. 

Due to the implementation of the Ruffe Control Plan, cooperation from the public and many partners, ruffe are mostly confined to the south shore of Lake Superior, and the spread of ruffe across the south shore (a distance greater than 700 km) was successfully delayed for 20 years until 2006. 

During 2006, ruffe were confirmed in eastern Lake Superior in Whitefish Bay, 55 km west of the Soo Locks, the gateway to Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes.  The Soo Locks make it possible for fish as well as shipping to bypass the Soo Falls in the St Marys River, allowing access between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes.

Gary Czypinski and University of Notre Dame volunteer, Jody Murray, from the Ashland Fishery Resources Office in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) completed surveillance trawling for ruffe and other AIS in the two most active of the four U.S. Locks. 

Close coordination, including radio communication and visual observation, between the Ashland survey crew and Chief Lockmaster, Gary Clow, insured the safety of the crew and prevented delays to shipping.  Although many fish were observed on the trawler fish finder within the Lock water columns, no fish were captured in the bottom trawl which primarily samples bottom dwelling forage fish such as the ruffe. 

No further surveillance trawling is planned within the Soo Locks until ruffe are confirmed in closer proximity to the Locks.  ACOE personnel Carl Woodruff, Al Klein, Kevin Sprague, and Gary Clow are to be commended for their high level of support and coordination, which contributed greatly to the successful trawling of this AIS surveillance target.

In other surveillance sampling, no ruffe or other AIS were captured during extensive sampling in the St. Marys River above the Soo Locks, and in Marquette Harbor and Huron Bay in Lake Superior.