Annual Report of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission

1984 News Briefs

• Commissioner Ken Loftus retired after 12 years of service as commissioner. He was chair for 6 of those years.
• The Habitat Advisory Board operated for the first time as an official GLFC entity in 1984.
• The commission became a sustaining member of the International Association for Great Lakes Research.

Commissioners

    Canadian Section:                            U.S. Section:
    Patrick S. Chamut                            William P. Horn, Vice-Chair
    Kenneth H. Loftus, Chair                  W. Mason Lawrence
    Henry A. Regier                               James Ridenour
    Gary C. Vernon                                Claude Ver Duin

Sea Lamprey Management and Research

• The commission created a Sterile Male Release Task Force to coordinate studies, select test sites, and propose funding levels to determine the feasibility of using sterile male lampreys in extended field trials.
• Dr. Bill Beamish of the University of Guelph chaired a commission meeting to evaluate the potential of hormones for sea lamprey management.
• The commission decided to conclude a pheromone research program by Monell Chemical Services Center if a sea lamprey male sex attractant could not be identified by 1985.
• A Sea Lamprey Barrier Dam Evaluation Task Force of US/Canadian agents, MDNR, and secretariat was established.
• The commission encouraged reliance on fish community goals as a basis for integrated sea lamprey management.

Fishery Management, Environment and Research

• The commission funded research to develop a field technique for distinguishing wild from hatchery origin lake trout.
• The commission requested that BOTE evaluate the impacts of exotic fish species introduced to the Great Lakes.
• Dr. Joe Koonce (Case Western Reserve) began refinement of sea lamprey-lake trout adaptive management models.
• The commission requested and received the assistance of the USFWS Leetown lab in developing diagnostic techniques for bacterial kidney disease (BKD).
• The commission took greater steps to support lake trout rehabilitation by agreeing to give the issue higher priority in the budget, by encouraging lake committees to incorporate research into their management plans, by encouraging tribal participation within the existing committee structure, and by agreeing to address all lake trout concerns within the context of the technical committee structure.
• Through commission-sponsored research, Dr. Ruth Phillips (Uof Wisconsin) discovered the sex chromosome in lake trout. The commission provided funds for the second year of a chromosome banding study.
• Dr. Bill Beamish (U of Guelph) received funds for a 2-year maintenance of the Cyclostomata Bibliography.
• The commission supported Dr. John Forney's (Cornell U) study of response of fish in Oneida Lake to sea lamprey control.

Publications

• Recommendations for Standardizing the Reporting of Sea Lamprey Marking Data, by Eshenroder and Koonce (SP 84-1).
• Strategies for Rehabilitation of Lake Trout in the Great Lakes: Proceedings of a Conference on Lake Trout Research [CLAR], by Eshenroder, Poe and Olver. (TR 40)
• Analysis of the Response to the Use of "Adaptive Environmental Assessment Methodology" by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, by Minns, Cooley and Forney. (SP 84-3)

Committee Action, Resolutions, and Reports

Lake Committees

• The Council of Lake Committees endorsed the task force review of lake trout technical plans, and noted that additional work on evaluating goals and objectives
• and criteria for establishing stocking recommendations would be very useful.
• The Lake Erie Committee reported that sea lamprey predation in Lake Erie seriously threatened lake trout rehabilitation. The committee's Lake Trout Task Group was urged to complete a lake trout management plan so that consideration of a sea lamprey management plan could proceed.
• The Lake Huron Committee reported that whitefish were at historical highs in Lake Huron. The committee also reported wounding rates in southern Lake Huron were higher across all size classes of lake trout. The highest wounding rates for whitefish were observed in the North Channel followed by an area just south of Manitoulin Island.
• The Lake Michigan Committee reported that whitefish were near historic high levels. The committee noted that sea lamprey wounding rates declined to low levels in northern Wisconsin and southern Wisconsin-Illinois. Declines in wounding rates were correlated with recent stream treatments.
• The Lake Ontario Committee recommended that emphasis be placed on a comprehensive evaluation in Lake Ontario of Oneida Lake lampricide actions. The committee observed that Seneca Lake lake trout may escape sea lamprey due to pelagic habits and that their relative survival may be based on the presence of a more accessible food source such as Lake Superior strain lake trout. The committee reported that New York and Ontario would try to marry their fish management plans as envisioned by the Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries (SGLFMP).
• The Lake Superior Committee stated that the major challenge with respect to lake trout was to make allocation agreements and to allocate fewer lake trout for consumptive uses.

Board of Technical Experts

• Reported that it planned to streamline procedures for reviewing research proposals and for identifying emerging issues. The board reported that it saw potential in interdisciplinary initiatives underway at the time.

Great Lakes Fish Disease Control Committee

• Reported progress in developing options for coordinated control of Bacterial Kidney Disease. The committee provided the commission with an updated summary of fish and egg importation, transportation, and stocking permit requirements for agencies in the Great Lakes. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, in consultation with the committee, decided to terminate plans for release into Lake Erie of coho salmon raised in a watershed contaminated with whirling disease.

Habitat Advisory Board

• The new Habitat Advisory Board formalized its membership and completed its terms of reference. The duties of the board included: identification of current and emerging issues that may impede achievement of fishery goals; proposing strategies, programs, methods, or criteria for habitat protection, rehabilitation, development, or conservation; fostering the development of habitat assessment techniques for fish communities; promoting the formulation of habitat evaluation and management plans by the lake committees; and developing an integrated habitat policy and management approach among fishery and other resource management agencies and interest groups.

Communications

• The commission responded affirmatively to the suggestion of NOAA's National Marine Pollution Program Office that the GLFC and NOAA cooperate in determining future pollution research emphasis in the Great Lakes.
• The commission made available the slide/tape shows Great Lakes Invader and Bringing Back the Great Lakes.

1984 Budget

The commission received the following funds from the United States and Canada (in U.S. dollars):

                                        UnitedStates    Canada,         Total
Total                                   $4,354,000      $2,204,889      $6,558,889