Acad. Sci., Havana, Cuba. Ser. Oceanologica, p. 1-41. 



Kristie Killam 

 Glenn Parsons 



Department of Marine Science 



University of South Florida at St. Petersburg 



HO 7th Avenue South 



St. Petersburg, FL 33701 



MOVEMENT OF SEA-RUN SEA LAMPREYS, 



PETROMYZON MARINUS, DURING 



THE SPAWNING MIGRATION IN 



THE CONNECTICUT RIVER 1 



Adult sea lampreys, Petromyzon marinus, first 

 enter New England rivers in late March and early 

 April (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953). The only infor- 

 mation on river water temperatures during the 

 migration were collected in 1974 from the St. John 

 River, New Brunswick, where Beamish and Potter 

 (1975) captured the first prespawning adults in a fish 

 lift at Mactaquac Dam (river km 140) at 13° C in mid- 

 June and the run peaked at 17°-19°C. Because 

 thousands of sea lampreys are annually passed up- 

 stream of Holyoke Dam (river km 140) on the Con- 

 necticut River, the passage records provide an ideal 

 opportunity to characterize the run relative to tem- 

 perature. River flow was partially or totally con- 

 trolled by the hydroelectric facilities at the dam, so 

 we did not examine the effects of flow on the run. 

 The behavior and rate of movement of landlocked 

 sea lampreys in the Great Lakes was determined 

 using mark and recapture of adults at stream weirs 

 (Applegate 1950; Applegate and Smith 1950; Smith 

 and Elliot 1952; Moore et al. 1974). The only esti- 

 mate of the rate of movement of sea-run sea lam- 

 preys was done by Beamish (1979) who used the 

 energy expended during an upstream movement to 

 estimate the distance traveled and the rate of move- 

 ment of adults in the St. John River. Because this 

 estimate of the rate of movement was not verified 

 by direct observations on fish in the field, we be- 

 lieved that additional study was necessary. We 

 selected radio telemetry to determine the rate of 

 movement and diel behavior of sea lampreys. The 



Contribution No. 101 of the Massachusetts Cooperative Fishery 

 Research Unit, which is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Mass- 

 achusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the University of 

 Massachusetts. 



abundance, size, and sex ratio of the Connecticut 

 River population were reported by Stier and Kynard 

 (1986). 



Methods 



Radio-tagged sea lampreys were observed in the 

 46 km stretch of the Connecticut River from Brun- 

 elle's Marina to Cabot Station, a hydroelectric facil- 

 ity located 4.5 km below Turners Falls Dam (Fig. 

 1). The downstream half of this stretch flows slow- 

 ly, creating a deep channel and shoals; the upstream 

 half flows swiftly with pools and riffles. Major 

 spawning areas are in the upper main-stem near 

 Cabot Station, Russelville Brook, and the Fort, Mill, 

 Sawmill, and Deerfield Rivers (Fig. 1). 



The number of sea lampreys passed daily by the 

 fish lifts from 1980 to 1983 were counted by per- 

 sonnel of the Massachusetts Cooperative Fishery 

 Research Unit. Daily maximum river temperature 

 was recorded at Holyoke Dam. 



Sea lampreys were captured in the trap at the fish 

 lifts during May and June 1982, measured for total 

 length, and held for <24 h in a 1,325 L circular tank 

 supplied with river water. We anesthetized fish with 

 MS-222 (1:20,000) and tagged them first with a Floy 

 tag inserted through the posterior dorsal fin, and 

 second with a transmitter placed on the left side of 

 the body along the first dorsal fin. Sex could not be 

 accurately determined visually. 



Cylindrical radio transmitters were constructed 

 from the design of Knight (1975) and operated at 

 a frequency of 30.05-30.25 MHz. Tags measured 34 

 x 10 mm, weighed 3.5-4.5 g in air, and transmitted 

 for about 20 d. Each fish was identified by frequency 

 and pulse rate. We located fish to within about 10 

 m, using receivers equipped with an omnidirectional, 

 1/8- wave antenna and a directional, tuned-loop 

 antenna. 



We released two to six^sea lampreys at a time and 

 observed them continuously for >6 h or until dark- 

 ness. Subsequently, sea lampreys were located each 

 day until they reached Cabot Station or entered a 

 tributary. During all surveys, we noted the locations 

 of fish to the nearest river kilometer. Diel movement 

 was monitored for five 24-h periods. Additional fish 

 were released during the day for this study. 



Results and Discussion 



The water temperatures, and the year in paren- 

 theses, when sea lampreys first entered the fish lifts 

 were 12.5°C (1980), 10.5°C (1981), 12.5°C (1982), 

 and 15.5°C (1983) (Fig. 2). The lifts sampled the en- 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 3, 1986. 



749 



