Huron Erie Corridor Sea Lamprey
Project Title
Migration routes and spawning locations of adult sea lampreys in the Huron-Erie Corridor
Project Code
HECSL
Project Duration
January 2014 - December 2018
Project Description
Sea lamprey populations in Lake Erie have remained above target levels since 2005 despite intensified control efforts. An emerging hypothesis to explain increased sea lamprey abundance and resilience to traditional control methods is that sea lamprey recruitment and survival have recently increased in the Lake Huron-to-Lake Erie Corridor (i.e., St. Clair and Detroit rivers, Lake St. Clair, and tributaries, hereafter HEC). Due to the area and volume of larval sea lamprey habitat in the HEC, alternative (non-lampricide) control strategies (e.g., sterile male releases, interception traps, push-pull strategies) may be important to the future of sea lamprey control in the HEC. Emerging technologies (e.g., pheromones, alarm substances, electrical guidance) offer hope to improve the ability to capture and assess sea lamprey populations within the HEC, but knowledge of migration routes, spawning locations, and adult abundance will be necessary to direct any future alternative control efforts and to facilitate timely implementation when alternative technologies become available. We are using acoustic telemetry to determine the spatial distribution of adult sea lampreys during upstream migration and spawning within the HEC.
Objectives
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Funding
Publications