Mary Henson samples for invertebrates near piping plover nesting areas. - FWS photo

Marquette Biological Station biologist Mary Henson and biological technician Gregg Baldwin initiated a sampling protocol to determine whether there is a significant change in the density or diversity of invertebrates available to foraging shorebirds, particularly piping plovers, following a lampricide treatment. 

Samples of sand and water were taken for comparison along twenty transects of the estuary and mouth of the Platte River, and along the beach of Lake Michigan prior to, and following the August 27^th lampricide treatment. 

The Marquette and Ludington Biological Stations annually conduct about fifty stream treatments with lampricides to control sea lampreys in the Great Lakes.  Because of the 1985 listing of the piping plover as an endangered species and the 2001 designation of piping plover critical habitat along shorelines of the Great Lakes, it is necessary for the Sea Lamprey Management Program to schedule lampricide treatments outside the critical nesting period (April 15 to August 15) where plovers nest and raise their young. 

The long range goals of the Sea Lamprey Management Program include the continued management of sea lampreys in the Great Lakes and the protection of the Great Lakes population of piping plovers. The Service delivers a program of integrated sea lamprey control in the U.S. waters of the Great Lakes as a contracted agent of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

(Contact Mary Henson 906.226.1210)