1994 News Briefs

• A truck accident claimed the life of Gary Steinbach, a sea lamprey treatment crew leader with the U.S. agent's Marquette station. Mr. Steinbach, a USFWS employee for over 25 years, was assisting state and federal personnel from New York and Vermont in a project to control sea lampreys in Lake Champlain when the accident occurred.
• The commission hosted an International Conference on Lake Trout Restoration in the Laurentian Great Lakes (RESTORE).
• Exe. Secretary Bob Beecher returned to the Ontario Ministry Natural Resources to serve as Director, Great Lakes Branch.
• U.S. Advisor Stanley Sivertson of Duluth, Minnesota passed away. Mr. Sivertson served as advisor for 27 years.

Commissioners

Canadian Section:                       U.S. Section:

F. William H. Beamish                   C.D. (Buzz) Besadny, Chair
Gail Beggs, Vice-Chair                  Charles C. Krueger
Cheryl Fraser                           Harry H. Whiteley, alternate
Paul Sutherland                         Vacancy
                                        Vacancy

Sea Lamprey Management and Research

• The commission provided funds to support a partnership between the Canadian Departments of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans to investigate non-chemical alternatives to control sea lampreys.
• Dr. Phil Cochran (St. Norbert College) received funds to study the interaction between individual lamprey and hosts through the testing and extension of a lamprey feeding model.
• Responding to the commission's request for proposals for alternative sea lamprey control research, Dr. John Holmes (U of Toronto) received funds to begin study on predicting metamorphosis in lampreys. The commission provided Dr. John Kelso (DFO) with funds to study radiotelemetry of spawning lampreys, and Dr. John Youson (U of Toronto) received funds to study hormonal and genetic control of metamorphosis.
• The commission congratulated the Barrier Task Force on progress made with the Barrier Strategy and accepted the task force's draft working strategy document. The strategy was seen as a significant advance toward implementing an effective and comprehensive alternative control program.
• The commission funded the construction of a permanent sea lamprey trap at Great Lakes Power.

Fishery Management, Environment, and Research

• The commission explored and approved (pending agreement of fishery agencies) the use of TFM to control ruffe.
• The commission provided funds to support the Lake Erie Committee Workshop on Catch-at-Age-Analysis (CAGEAN).
• The commission organized a meeting of technical experts with the Environmental Research Institute in Michigan (ERIM) to pursue a partnership on behalf of agencies signatory to SGLFMP and allied water quality agencies.
• At the request of the Lake Ontario Committee, the commission endorsed the concept of Lake Ontario ecosystem workshop jointly sponsored by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the International Joint Commission every 3-5 years.
• The commission wrote to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt expressing concern that the Great Lakes were not included in a NBS list of 11 priority ecosystems for the U.S. A similar letter was sent to Canada's Environment Minister.

Publications

• The State of Lake Superior in 1992, edited by M.J.Hansen. (SP 94-1)
• An Introduction to Economic Valuation Principles for Fisheries Management, by L.G. Anderson. (SP 94-2)
• Walleye-Rehabilitation Guidelines for the Great Lakes Area, by Colby, Lewis, Eshenroder, Haas, and Hushak.

Committee Action, Resolutions, and Reports

Lake Committees

• The Council of Lake Committees established a lake trout management review task force to review CLC stocking policies and related issues. The council adopted a resolution on ruffe containment that acknowledged that TFM might be an effective control agent, and that it supported an experimental program to determine its effectiveness. The council noted, however, that if ruffe escaped from the containment area, the experiment would be ended.
• The Lake Erie Committee agreed that measures were needed to reduce mortality of Eastern basin smelt. Agencies should address both reduction of commercial harvest and predation from introduced salmonines.
• The Lake Huron Committee, recognizing the serious damages caused by sea lampreys from the St. Marys River, strongly urged the parties to the Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries to provide as a priority the additional funding required to aggressively advance implementation of a sea lamprey control strategy for the St. Marys River.
• The Lake Michigan Committee formed a yellow perch task group, charging it to consolidate the available perch data and assess its compatibility, and to evaluate what the data show about the discreteness of perch stocks. The committee discussed the advisability of stocking walleye in southern Lake Michigan.
• The Lake Ontario Committee urged all agencies, institutions, and individuals involved in data collection, surveillance, and assessment to continue their commitment to such programs and further collaborate in program design, implementation, and synthesis. The committee reaffirmed the need for its technical committee to outline requirements to re-establish self-sustaining populations of bloater and/or deepwater sculpin.
• The Lake Superior Committee expressed its concern over the underfunding of the National Biological Survey, asserting that the Great Lakes comprise a key ecosystem worth millions of dollars. The committee approved Technical Committee plans to reconstruct lake trout CPE by units, and to examine causes for declining lake trout size in Lake Superior.

Board of Technical Experts

• The commission and the board sponsored an International Conference on Lake Trout Restoration in the Laurentian Great Lakes (RESTORE), which was the culmination of a seven-year lake trout research task. Topics included insights into other restoration programs, case studies of progress toward restoration in each of the five lakes, insights into areas with successful lake trout reproduction, and studies that dealt with potential impediments to restoration.

Great Lakes Fish Disease Control Committee

• Sent a questionnaire to members of the private aquaculture sector and discovered that there was a perception that the committee and other similar regional fish health policy bodies created regulations which in some way restricted the activities of private aquaculture.
• Recognized a need to request funding from the commission for additional sources of research for the development of diagnostic tool for epizootic epitheliotropic disease virus.

Habitat Advisory Board

• Wrote to Environment Canada and the U.S. EPA requesting those agencies consider broadening the scope of LaMPs beyond a plan to deal with critical pollutants and towards a plan that has an ecosystem approach and which would recognize resource and habitat management goals and objectives.
• Hosted a workshop to explore ways in which lake committees might complement Environmental Objectives with Fish Community Objectives. Lakes Superior and Erie were chosen as the "test" lakes.

Communications

• As outlined in the commission's Strategic Vision, the commission adopted its communications strategy and agreed to hire a communications specialist to produce a newsletter, to produce annual reports, to write press releases, to keep stakeholders and the public educated about the commission's program, to develop an Internet site, and to serve as a liaison with advisors.

1994 Budget

                                                United States           Canada          Total
Total                                           $10,558,000             $3,439,203      $13,997,203