Causing a big splash in Lake Champlain

Sea Lamprey have raised the eyebrows of many area specialists after the species put a large dent in Lake Champlain's native fish.

Story and photos by Allen Kirmss

As the sun set over Lake Champlain on an unusually warm March evening in Plattsburgh, no sign of distress was apparent. Rough waves crashed against the dock at the Plattsburgh Landing while chunks of ice slowly melt in hypothermia-inducing water. The real problem, however, lay underneath the waters.

"Native or not native, they’re a nuisance."

Beneath the surface, fish are being attacked by an eel-like fish, no longer than two feet, with an opened-mouth jaw that sticks onto its prey and sucks them dry. Sea Lamprey, as these predators are known, have been terrorizing the waters of Lake Champlain for decades. Their nuisance in the region has created quite the stir on both sides of the lake between Vermont and New York on how to sufficiently rid the species from the lake and create homeostasis for the species affected by them.
           
Their origins are unclear. Some have argued that Sea Lamprey are native to Lake Champlain, while others say the fish migrated here from area’s like the Great Lakes.
"Native or not native, they’re a nuisance," says Tim Mihuc, Director of the Lake Champlain Research Institute. "As a scientist, when I look at and see the evidence, I would say the most likelihood sea lamprey are native to Lake Champlain."

Their motives are vampire-like. Sea Lampreys latch onto to fish with light scales and suck their blood to feed themselves. Once they get their moneys worth, the lamprey leave and find their next victim. Since the lamprey population has gotten out of control over the past decade, the rate at which fish are being affected is astronomical.

Sea Lamprey are very primitive fish. They use their tongues to latch onto other fishes, and use an anticoagulant (which is found in the lampreys saliva) that allows its tongue to keep wounds on fishes scales remain open for days, if not weeks, according to research compiled by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.

"I’ve had them attach to a sea kayak and canoe paddles."

A common misconception about Sea Lamprey is that they do not kill the fish they latch on to, Mihuc says. They attack all types of fish; however, 90 percent of the fish they go after have light scales which are easy to attach to according to Mark Malchoff, an aquatic resource specialist with the Sea Grant of Lake Champlain.

Sea Lamprey have even been known to attach to swimmers, who spent an excessive amount of time in the water at one sitting.

"[They attach] when your skin temperature gets cold enough you start to feel it look like a fish," says Malchoff. "I’ve had them attach to a sea kayak and canoe paddles."

As their name suggests, Sea Lamprey need a marine environment to survive. They lay their eggs in rivers and streams from adjoining lakes they reside in. Since Lake Champlain has a surplus of rivers and streams that connect to it, the Lamprey are in no struggle to find a breeding ground.

As of right now, no animal is keeping the sea lamprey under control, and if the theory that the lamprey are native to the Lake Champlain area, then the question arises of what species fed on sea lamprey and kept their population under control? "Nobody knows," says Malchoff. "There’s lots of guesses."

One suggestion, according to Malchoff is that the American Eels that used to reside in lakes from Lake Champlain all the way to the Carolina’s kept them in check. However, the amount of the eels has substantially decreased over the years after European settlement, allowing the Sea Lamprey to thrive.

Efforts to control the Sea Lamprey in Lake Champlain have been a battle for both New York and Vermont alike. Malchoff says that Vermont has been strong in getting the money for the control while New York has been the driving force behind controlling the parasites.
The first control of Sea Lamprey’s occurred in the 1990’s when agencies used something known as the lamprcide chemical. That effort was relatively successful, but was stopped after only a few years due to funding. In the last five years, efforts have started again to control the lamprey in Lake Champlain.

The one thing beneficial about lamprey control is that due to their unique breeding, Sea Lamprey treatment only needs to be administered every three to four years, and it is relatively easy to locate their breeding grounds.

"Because of their life history they are a very controllable species," says Mihuc . "That’s one of the reasons lamprey treatments are successful, because of the biology and life history of them."

Mihuc believes that getting the lamprey down to a level where fishing won’t be negatively affected is where the program needs to get to.

"We cannot eliminate lamprey from the lake," says Lance Durfee, supervising aquatic biologist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in Ray Brook. "We’re hoping to put some sort of a control on their numbers."

After the 1990 control program, Durfee says that an intense assessment by the DEC was done, and found that more efforts needed to be directed toward the control process.

"It was indeed worth pursuing longer term," says Durfee. However, the results of the long term program have been, "disappointing," according to Durfee. By examining fishes wound rates, an assessment is made to the control process.

"It’s an ongoing process," says Durfee .

For now, the Sea Lamprey in Lake Champlain is still an ever growing problem. However, Malchoff does not see the lamprey as the number one problem facing the lake. He puts their population control right behind water quality and invasive species.

Many different agencies have different methods of how to control the lamprey. Mihuc believes that control will continue for the sea lamprey. He see’s a dual effort between both Vermont and New York to suppress the growing population and getting them down to lower levels.

Do you think Sea Lampreys are a big problem in Lake Champlain?