1985 News Briefs

• The commission sponsored an International Symposium on Assessment of Stock and Prediction of Yield (ASPY).
• The commission sponsored the Workshop to Evaluate Sea Lamprey Populations (WESLP).

Commissioners

Canadian Section:                       U.S. Section:

Patrick S. Chamut, Vice-Chair           William P. Horn, Chair
John C. Davis (nominee)                 W. Mason Lawrence
Arthur S. Holder (nominee)              James M. Ridenour
Henry A. Regier                         Claude Ver Duin

Sea Lamprey Management and Research

• The commission directed agents to start treatment of Lake Erie in 1987 on the condition that treatment elsewhere not be diminished.
• The commission provided funds for reconstruction of a barrier dam with fish ladder for Wisconsin's Brule River.
• Dr. Stacia Sower (U of N.H.) was granted funds to study the use of hormones and their analogues to control reproduction and metamorphosis in sea lampreys.
• Dr. Bill Beamish (U of Guelph) received research contracts to study techniques for aging sea lampreys and for validating age determination by statoliths.
• The commission funded re-examination of previously collected data for establishing EPA tolerance levels for TFM.

Fishery Management, Environment and Research

• The commission wrote to the U.S. Sec. of State and Canadian Sec. of State for External Affairs regarding pollution on the Niagara and St. Clair Rivers, and the implications for sport and commercial fisheries in Lakes Ontario and St. Clair.
• The commission urged agency support of the fish disease policy and model program, supported the ban on importation of salmonid eggs or fish from areas such as the West Coast where infectious hermatopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is endemic, and supported educational initiatives on the fish disease control program and its objectives.
• The commission commended agencies for developing a uniform health advisory for Lake Michigan fish and urged cleanup efforts and expansion of the uniform advisory concept.
• The commission contracted with Dr. Jim Kitchell (U of WI) for studies on food webs in Great Lakes fish communities.
• The commission provided Dr. Jim Seelye (USFWS) with funds for equipment and costs incurred in rearing and marking lake trout over a 3-year period for of a joint study of lake trout habitat and hatchery effects, as called for in the Conference on Lake Trout Research.
• Dr. Rosalyn Stevenson (U of Guelph) received funds to study culture and diagnostics of bacterial kidney disease.

Publications

• Overfishing or Pollution? Case history of a Controversy on the Great Lakes, by F. Egerton. (TR 41)
• Movement and Capture of Sea Lampreys Marked in Northern Lake Huron, 1981-82, by Heinrich, Anderson, and Oja. (TR 42)
• Response of Spawning-Phase Sea Lampreys to a Lighted Trap, by Purvis, Chudy, King, and Dawson. (TR 42)
• A Prospectus for the Management of the Long Point Ecosystem, by Francis, Grima, Regier, and Whillans. (TR 43)
• Population Dynamics and Interagency Management of the Bloater in Lake Michigan, by Brown, Rybicki, and Poff. (TR 44)
• Review of Fish Species Introduced into the Great Lakes, 1819-1974, by L. Emery. (TR 45)
• Impact of Sea Lamprey Parasitism on the Blood Features and Hemopoietic Tissues of Rainbow Trout, by R.E. Kinnunen. (TR 46)
• Solid Bars of [TFM]: A Simplified Method of Applying Lampricide to Small Streams, by P. A. Gilderhus. (TR 47)
• TFM vs the Sea Lamprey: A Generation Later. (SP 85-6)

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 (expectations and milestones) and criteria for establishing stocking recommendations would be very useful.
• The Lake Erie Committee expressed its gratitude to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its commitment to assemble the Scientific Protocol Committee's early work on walleye for publication in the commission's technical report series.
• The Lake Huron Committee agreed to write to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) concerning the fate of the scarce shortnose cisco. The letter would ask OMNR to look for isolated populations which could be protected. It was hoped that a shortnose cisco population could be located on the proposed mid-lake refuge.
• The Lake Michigan Committee suggested that its technical committee address fish community goals and predator capacity of the lake (e.g. salmon units) in order that it may recommend to the committee on such matters as stocking allotments, appropriate relative abundance of alewife in Lake Michigan, and deliver a picture of fish community structure and trends.
• The Lake Ontario Committee recommended to the CLC that it develop a standardized form to use in which annual lake trout mortalities could be attributed--with the best information available--to various sources such as commercial, sport, illegal fisheries, sea lamprey, etc.
• The Lake Superior Committee charged its technical committee to work with Dr. Joe Koonce (Case Western Reserve) in developing his method and in working out estimates of fish mortality due to sea lamprey attack, sea lamprey abundance, etc. The states, the tribes, and the province agreed to provide information to the extent possible.

Board of Technical Experts

• Noting the need to participate in meetings dealing with development of fish community goals, the board agreed to have members attend the IJC-sponsored food web workshop.

Great Lakes Fish Disease Control Committee

• Reported that despite recurrent problems and new outbreaks of various fish diseases, reaction of agencies to control disease spread were effective and no serious threats to the salmonid resources in the Great Lakes basin were perceived.
• Asked the commission to endorse voluntary restraints by member agencies on importing salmonids from areas where infectious hermatopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) was endemic.

Habitat Advisory Board

• Noted a general consensus by each lake committee that a focus on habitat issues was necessary, and that habitat plans should be essential segments of Great Lakes fisheries management plans and programs.

Communications

• The commission provided statements in support of lake trout rehabilitation at Wisconsin DNR hearings on fishing restrictions.
• BOTE and HAB members received from the commission copies of the non-governmental review of the 1978 Water Quality Agreement, and were asked, after consultation with lake committees, to report to the commission about how the 1978 Water Quality Agreement might be improved.

1985 Budget

                                                United States           Canada          Total
Total                                           $4,424,000              $2,194,132      $6,618,132