Family-Outdoors

Midwest Regional Director and Great Lakes Fishery Commissioner Tom Melius (left) with Bob Adair, recipient of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's Vernon Applegate Award for Outstanding Contributions to Sea Lamprey Control. Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission awarded recently retired Service employee Bob Adair with the Vernon Applegate Award for Outstanding Contributions to Sea Lamprey Control at its Annual Meeting on June 9, 2016 in Ottawa, Ontario. Adair dedicated more than forty years of his life to protecting the natural resources of the United States. His career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spanned the Fisheries, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration and Ecological Services Programs. He brought extensive knowledge and experience to the Sea Lamprey Control Program, which he began leading in 2007.  The Commission's Vernon Applegate Award is named after the father of sea lamprey control, Vern Applegate, who wa...

Annually, from March through October, the Marquette and Ludington Biological Stations control and assess the presence, distribution and abundance of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes and its tributaries. This year was especially exciting in the battle against this vampire-like invasive species. Sea lamprey Abundance numbers are at their lowest levels in decades in Lake Huron and Michigan according to data released by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The Sea Lamprey Control Program stays on the cutting edge of technology to increase the number of tools available- allowing for more effective work. Research this year included studying how sea lamprey pheromones and alarm cues influence the invader's migration behavior, as well as improving the efficiency of trapping technology via eel ladders and directed water currents to guide sea lamprey into traps. The Service's sea lamprey pest management program has been and continues to be successful because of adaptive management an...