St. Marys River Task Force Report

St. Marys River

Task ForceReport

St. Marys River Control

Task force established January 1992
Charge is to develop a strategy for sustainable sea lamprey control on the St. Marys River that includes an integrated program of options that minimize costs and environmental impacts, while maximizing suppression of transformer production from the river over the long term.
Members are: Larry Schleen (Chair) and Robert Young from Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada; John Heinrich, Dennis Lavis, and Terry Morse from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Roger Bergstedt from National Biological Service; James Johnson (Lake Technical Committee Representative) from Michigan Department of Natural Resources; Richard Fleming (Outside Expert) from Forestry Canada; and Gavin Christie from Great Lakes Fishery Commission Secretariat.
In 1995 the SMRCTF focused its efforts on coordinating and evaluating the extensive information-gathering projects necessary to estimate the efficacy and costs for the various control options.
Meetings held on March 9-10 and September 25-26, 1995.
Progress on the charge in 1995:

The intensive larval assessment work to map the distribution of larval lampreys continued. Initial field and lab trials with the new granular Bayer bottom toxicant were conducted, and plans for the recommended dye flow study continued. In addition, the design for the new adult trap at the Great Lakes Power (GLP) facility was completed and progress continued on the design for improved trapping at at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (U.S.C.O.E.) hydroelectric facility. The latest version of the control strategy timeline, with estimated costs is presented in Table 21. The following statements summarize the actions and status of the control options and the information gathering tasks.

 Table 21.  ST. MARY'S RIVER CONTROL STRATEGY - TIMELINE/COST ESTIMATES

Action/Year						95					96						97					98						99+

I.  Control Options

 A.  Reduce Reproduction

    1. Adult Trapping  			41 K	  		 50 KOperate			44 K			50 K				Continuing
								new GLP Trap

     2. Sterile Male Release		55 K			65 K Exp. release		67 K Operate 		70 K				Continuing
								 from other  			newCOE Trap
								L. Huron trib

     3. Enhanced GLP Trap Const.	Design 			Contruction 100 K
					Completed

     4. Enhanced COE Trap Const.								Construction
												61 K of 244 K


 B.  Reduce Larval Population

     1. Section Bayer Treatment									Decide on 		1,012 K 			Finish 75 																			% coverage
												option			(450 Acres)?			in 5 years (7 total)?

     2. Section TFM Treatment	 								Decide on   						Potential to treat
												option							North channel  - 1999  at earliest

     3. Whole River TFM Treatment								Decide on option
												(Low effectiveness)

II.  Information Needs

    1. Larval & Habitat Mapping		240 K			155.4 K (completion)

    2. Index of Larval Abundance	100 K			200 K				206 K			212 K				Continuing

    3. Ageing/trans. Rates		$s in index 		assessment 			above

    4 TFM Transport Model		original project 	Further development 		Final Calibration
					completed 		23 K+5 K (Sonar)		25 K

    5. Dye Study			Planning		150 K

    6.Section Bayer Studies		36 K 			180 K				180 K
					(4 Acres) 		(66 Acres)			(66 Acres)

    7. Bayer Efficacy Testing		62 K			64 K

    8. Stock Recruitment Workshop				April & Nov./96

III. Environmental Assessment

    1. Envir. Assess. Process									? K			? K				? K

    2. Non-Target Impacts		-------	 		Develop plan $0 K		? K			? K				? K

Control Options
- Reduce Reproduction
  - Trapping of spawning phase sea lampreys and release of sterilized males: These are ongoing Agent activities and are reported on in the sterile male release technique and the spawning-phase assessment sections of this report on pages 52 to 57 and 36 to 43. These activities will be intensified when the new traps described below become operational.
  - Enhanced adult trap at the GLP facility: The design for the new adult was completed in 1995. Initially the trap will not incorporate a fish pump to remove adults from the trap, but will have a swim-out pipe with water flow to allow trapped adults to swim to a holding area. This concept will be tested in 1996 and if successful, the fish pump will be unnecessary. Construction and installation of the trap are planned to be completed by May, 1996, to be operational for the1996 spawning run. Construction and engineering costs are still expected to be within the budgeted $100K.
  - Enhanced adult trap at U.S. C.O.E. facility: Progress continued in 1995 on plans to construct an enhanced trap(s) at the U.S.C.O.E. facility. Frequent discussions and negotiations between the COE, the U.S. Agent and the GLFC led to an accepted design. Sea lampreys are attracted to the site because of the water volume and velocity and the barrier of the COE facility concentrates the lampreys. The design of the enhanced trap will maximize the attractiveness of the existing water volume and velocity. Construction of the traps at the COE facility is scheduled for completion by May, 1997, which would make them operational for the 1997 spawning season. The GLFC cost share will be $61K of the total estimated $244K.
- Reduction in Larval Population
  - Section Bayer treatments: Treatments with the new granular Bayer formulation would not begin until 1998, following futher field testing of the formulation's efficacy in 1996 and 1997. The timeline previously suggested treating 160 acres in 1996 and 450 acres in 1997, but because of questions raised during the 1995 field and lab testing, no operational treatments are recommended until 1998. Up to 450 acres (cost $1,012K) could be treated starting in 1998, depending on test results, with annual applications to follow if funding allows.
  - Section and whole river TFM treatments: TFM treatment options would not be feasible until 1999 at the earliest. The flow (dye) study and the larval assessment work must be completed before an analysis of effectiveness and cost of using TFM can be made. As well, other information and preparations would need to be completed and funding secured. Pre.iminary indications are that a TFM treatment of the whole river will not be cost effective, but a treatment of the north channel portion might be (see section on flow model below).
Information Needs
- Larval and habitat mapping: At the conclusion of the 1994 field season, the St. Marys river had been sampled at a point density of every 70 metres from the navigational locks downstream through the North Channel to the head of Lake George and downstream in Lake Nicolet to Six Mile Point. Because densities were expected to fall off substantially in the lower portion of Lake Nicolet, sampling intensity in 1995 was reduced to transects spaced every 140 metres. A total of 10,003 stations have been examined over an area of 56.03 km2 since 1993 (Figure 9).
  Figure 9. Area sampled for larval sea lamprey distribution in the St. Marys River to end of 1995 (shaded area).
  
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