1987 News Briefs

• Dr. J.J. Tibbles, long-time director of the Sea Lamprey Control Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, retired.
• Mr. Patrick Manion, the Great Lakes Sea Lamprey Control Coordinator for the USFWS, retired after 30 years of service to the program.

Commissioners

Canadian Section:,                      U.S. Section:

Pierre Asselin                          William P. Horn
Arthur S. Holder                        Chair,W. Mason Lawrence
Henry A. Regier                         James M. Ridenour, Vice-Chair
Paul H. Sutherland                      Claude Ver Duin

Sea Lamprey Management and Research

• The commission agreed to treat Oneida Lake tributaries in 1988 provided that it could do so with no increase in budget.
• The commission recommended that a lock and dam on Wisconsin's Fox River be sealed to prevent establishment of sea lampreys upriver, and funded a study to alleviate the impact of the sealed lock on boating opportunities.
• The commission provided funds for development and installation of a Smith-Root electrical barrier on the Pere Marquette.
• Dr. Stacia Sower (U of N.H.) received funds for sea lamprey endocrinology research at Hammond Bay.
• Dr. Joe Koonce (Case Western Reserve) received funds to complete a support system for integrated management of sea lamprey.
• Agents began spawning ground observations and nest surveys in the St. Marys River in preparation for the implementation of a sterile-male-release technique.

Fishery Management, Environment, and Research

• The commission provided funds for a Wisconsin DNR study on population and distribution of the newly introduced ruffe.
• The commission supported Council of Lake Committees and Great Lakes Fish Disease Control Committee scoping of an introductions initiative, thereby supporting development of a basinwide policy and a definition of information needs.
• Dr. Charles Krueger (Cornell U) received funds for assessment of predation on lake trout eggs and fry.
• The commission provided funds for Dr. Tom Edsall's (USFWS) mapping of lake trout spawning grounds in Lakes Erie and Ontario.
• Dr. Ruth Phillips (U of Wisconsin) received funds for research on lake trout nuclear DNA.
• The commission agreed to address the issue of ballast water introductions and to fund a Wisconsin DNR study of ruffe.
• The commission agreed to provide a forum on the progress and problems in establishing a common consumption advisory.
• The commission contributed to the review of the 1978 Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Publications

• Using Lake Trout as an Indicator of Ecosystem Health: Application of the Dichotomous Key, by Marshall, Ryder, Edwards, and Spangler. (TR 49)
• Guidelines for Fish Habitat Management and Planning in the Great Lakes. (SP 87-1)
• Workshop to Evaluate Sea Lamprey Populations, edited by B.G.H Johnson. (SP 87-2)
• Temperature Relationships of Great Lakes Fishes: A Data Compilation, by Wismer and Christie. (SP 87-3)
• Report of the St. Marys River Task Force, edited by R.L. Eshenroder.

Committee Action, Resolutions, and Reports

Lake Committees

• The Council of Lake Committees recommended that the GLFC contract with Tom Gorenflo (COTFMA) for archiving pre-1985 Great Lakes stocking data. The council asked that the GLFC find an agency willing to host and update the material.
• The Lake Erie Committee requested funds from the GLFC to apply new indices of abundance and modeling approaches to historical yellow perch data in the University of Guelph mainframe computer. The committee agreed to develop a model that would predict forage abundance, diversity, and production under a wide range of predator (including man) densities.
• The Lake Huron Committee approved plans for a 2-day workshop to develop a definitive set of milestones for a sequence of clear indicators of progress in lake trout rehabilitation. The committee pledged to work with New York DEC to comment on the scope of the Habitat Advisory Board's proposed artificial reef policy.
• The Lake Michigan Committee requested that the GLFC send a letter to the Governor of Wisconsin recommending that a lock on the Fox River be closed and sealed to prevent the entry of sea lampreys. The committee referred to the CLC a request that lake trout commercially harvested, transported, or processed in Great Lakes jurisdictions be tagged.
• The Lake Ontario Committee supported HAB's cautious approach in seeking support data to develop a position statement on artificial reefs. The need to determine the purpose for which a reef was proposed, the location, materials, cost/benefit, and its impact on fish populations were items the committee felt must be included in criteria in proposing or approving the construction of artificial reefs. The committee noted that aquaculture may hold great promise for productive utilization of Great Lakes resources, but also posed potential threats related to the introduction of exotic species and fish diseases.
• The Lake Superior Committee asked the Lake Superior Technical Committee to plan a 2-year lakewide program marking (finclip and coded wire tag, if necessary) chinook salmon in order to determine rates of natural reproduction and distribution of stocked and native chinooks. Committee members (with the exception of Michigan DNR) supported the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission's proposal for a lake trout hatchery. Some questioned whether additional hatchery facilities would be required by 1995 if current progress in achieving lake trout and salmon natural reproduction continued.

Board of Technical Experts

• Proposed research in four main areas: integrated management of sea lamprey (IMSL), lake trout rehabilitation, fish community goals, and innovative problem solving.

Habitat Advisory Board

• Completed its draft Guidelines for Habitat Management and Planning.
• Members emphasized that when Superfund and other funds were allocated for clean water programs, fish and wildlife funding needs should be clearly identified. Unless fish and wildlife needs are specifically included in Great Lakes environmental programs, degradation and loss of habitat would continue. Contaminants were not just seen as a drinking water problem, but rather as an ecosystem problem.

Great Lakes Fish Disease Control Committee

• Reported the continued presence of enteric redmouth disease and bacterial kidney disease. Immunization methods and selective breeding were being utilized to control furunculosis and infectious pancreatic necrosis. Severe losses of lake trout in Michigan and Wisconsin state and federal facilities appeared to be the result of a Chlamydia-like organism.
• Supported a plan for the management and transfer of non-indigenous species in the Great Lakes basin.

Communications

• The commission conveyed support for Red Cliff Band construction of a lake trout hatchery for rehabilitation purposes, emphasizing the need to raise several genetic strains and to reach the production capacity necessary to meet the needs of the lake trout management plans in the upper lakes.

1987 Budget

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

                                                United States   Canada          Total
Total                                           $4,662,000      $2,265,320      $6,927,320