The Grand River is to be chemically treated to help control the invasive and parasitic sea lamprey

 

Engaged in a war that will never see an ultimate victory, the federal government will fight another battle next week in its efforts to control the invasive sea lamprey.

The work will be performed at four pre-selected sites on the Grand River and was conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with the cooperation of the joint U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. The former provided the expertise and muscle power while the latter furnished the bucks.

And those dollars are extensive, too. For the entire Great Lakes, the cost for sea lamprey control is $9 million annually from which the expense for the Grand River this year being about $200,000.

Yet the outlay is worth it, says Jenna Tews, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Station Supervisor for its Sea Lamprey Control Program in Ludington, Michigan.

Without treating the Grand River with what’s called a “lampricide,” approximately 3,400 juvenile sea lampreys would eventually grow into adulthood. At that stage the adults would migrate into Lake Erie where each would feast on – and kill – approximately 40 pounds (about 28,000 pounds total) of such fish species as steelhead, lake trout, bass, and walleye, Tews says.

“Those are significant number for Lake Erie,” Tews said. “The thing is, the Grand River is the fifth latest producer of sea lampreys for Lake Erie, the largest being the St. Clair River.”

Tews says the Grand River has perfect habitat and water quality for sea lamprey spawning and as a nursery water. Thus it qualifies for regular treatment of the lampricide, “TFM,” Tews said.

Besides the Grand River, Conneaut Creek also is periodically treated. Meanwhile, western New York’s Cattaraugus Creek  will receive a jolt of TFM this month; a process that costs $488,000, Tews says.

“Lake Erie has 842 tributaries, 30 tributaries have records of larval sea lamprey production, and of these, 18 tributaries – seven in Canada and 11 in the U.S.. - have been treated with lampricides at least once during 2012-2021,” Tews said additionally.

Since 1958, the program has used TFM to control sea lamprey in the Great Lakes. It was discovered in 1957 after more than 6,000 compounds were tested to uncover a selective sea lamprey control method. TFM is fully registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and with Health Canada as a safe and effective pesticide, Tews says.

This chemical works by killing sea lamprey juveniles, called larvae, which hatch from eggs, burrow into the river’s bottom where they live for several years before emerging as adults with eyes and the suction-cup mouth fitted with circular rows of hooked teeth.

At that point the adults make their way into Lake Erie where they feast on fish for 12 to 18 months before returning to a stream to spawn and die, repeating the cycle. They do this by using those circular rows of teeth to clasp onto a fish and then employ their rasping tongue to consume a fish’s flesh.

“So you can have several year classes of lampreys in a stream,” Tews said as well.

With TFM, Tews explains, the Great Lakes sea lamprey population has been reduced by 90 percent, helping to protect the system’s fisheries, estimate to be worth $9 billion annually, Tews says.

“The Grand River was last treated in 2017 so we are a little behind in our three- to five-year scheduling for it to be treated, partly as a result of COVID,” Tews said.

Treated will be a 32-mile long stretch of the Grand River, beginning at the Ashtabula Metro Parks’ Harpersfield Dam unit. Other sites included the confluence with the river at Mill, Paine, and Big-Kellogg creeks, all in Lake County and each associated with the Lake Metroparks’ system.

“We try to treat when the Grand River has a stream flow of 200 to no more than 1,000 (cubic feet per minute) stream flow. If the stream flow is too low than the TFM doesn’t move and the risk is greater for non-targeted species,” Tews also said.

And if the stream flow is too great than the lampricide becomes diluted and just washes downstream,” Tews also says.

Those non-targeted species include such species as mud puppies stonecats, and some fish species such as darters which could be spawning and consequently “are under greater stress,” Tews said.

For this reason part of the Fish & Wildlife Service’s work includes monitoring for any loss of non-target species as well as how the lampricide is being distributed.

What the Fish & Wildlife Service has found also, says Tews, is that the more frequently a stream is treated the greater is the public’s support for a project that for all practical purposes is the salvation of the entire Great Lakes fisheries.

“We have some people who are upset because of the non-targeted species losses but other people can see the bigger picture as to how the work is necessary for the protection of the Great Lakes fisheries,” Tews said.

By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com

State wildlife rehabilitators are responding quickly to Ohio's call to protect against spread of contagious avian flu

 In an effort to help stymie the serious threat to wild and domestic bird populations brought about by the avian flu, the Ohio Division of Wildlife has issued an alarm to the state’s approximately 70 wildlife rehabilitators.

The agency is advising rehabilitators to take steps to ensure their operations do not become portals for the disease

So serious is the threat that state officials are noting the highly contagious avian-specific flu disease has been detected in Ohio-based gulls, eagles, geese and in case of domestic fowl, a flock of pen-raised chickens in Franklin County.

Among the suggested steps include greater focus on such “biosecurity” measures as ensuring increased sanitation efforts, increased observation of birds in the rehabilitators’ care, quarantining of suspected infected birds. And other protocols, the Wildlife Division has instructed wildlife rehabilitators.

“Please note,” says a March 25 memo by the Wildlife Division to wildlife rehabilitators, “birds testing positive will require humane euthanasia and quarantine of your facility to prevent spread. This may also trigger a foreign animal disease investigation by the “US Department of Agriculture).”

To that end, the Wildlife Division is recommending that rehabilitators “limit the use of birds in educational programs,” particularly off-site; for care center staff who also have domestic fowl or pet birds at home to - at a minimum - wear different clothing at work from home; house waterfowl separately from other birds; and disinfect vehicles, equipment and cages.

Some licensed rehabilitators are taking the severest of steps by refusing to accept any new birds of any species for care. Among such rehabilitators is Lake Metroparks which operates the Kevin P. Clinton Wildlife Center in Kirtland.

This licensed and highly respected animal/bird rehabilitation operation annually received 700 to 1,000 birds for rehabilitative services.

In fact, Lake Metroparks is maximizing the Wildlife Division’s suggested guidelines in other ways, too. It is removing all bird feeders at any park where they have been assembled for attracting both birds as well as birders, parks officials are saying.

Similarly, the agency is discouraging waterfowl from visiting the pond at Penitentiary Glen, the park where the Wildlife Center is located.

“The decision to not accept birds for rehabilitation as we enter our busy season, while difficult, was made in the best interest of our program bird collection. The problem is, the disease is easily transmissible and many birds do not show symptoms,” says Tammy O’Neil, the Kevin P. Clinton’s Wildlife Care Manager

Lake Metroparks does not have the space to “appropriately quarantine birds at our facility the way larger organizations such as the Cleveland or Akron Zoos may be able to,” O’Neil says also.

O’Neil said she, her staff and parks officials will stay abreast of the latest developments with avian influenza, “and update our protocols and intake policies throughout the summer.”

“The Wildlife Center continues to work with fellow wildlife rehabilitators, ODNR and other agencies to contribute to minimizing the spread of avian influenza and to help wildlife the best we can during this outbreak,” O’Neil said.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com