_ / 



/v- 



1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 



100 



60 



40 2 



1970 



Figure 4. Production metric tons) of lake trout, 1930-66 

 (broken line), and number of sea lampreys caught 

 in index streams in Lake Superior, 1953-69 (solid 

 line) . From Smith, 1971 . 



Fisheries agencies recognized the urgent need for a control program, 

 and because the Great Lakes are bordered by two countries, United States 

 and Canada, including one Canadian province and eight U.S. states, the need 

 for international and interstate cooperation was imperative (Figure 5). In 

 1948 a committee representing these jurisdictions was established. Initial 

 control efforts were experimental and uncoordinated because so many 

 agencies were involved, and funding was not assured. In 1955 a Convention 

 on Great Lakes Fisheries was ratified by the United States and Canada which 

 established the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The commission's program 

 is divided into two major segments: (1) sea lamprey control and (2) coordi- 

 nation of fisheries research and management. The commission has no regula- 

 tory authority, but provides the forum in which mutually beneficial courses 

 of action are developed. Funding is through the Department of External 

 Affairs in Canada and by legislative appropriation to the Department of 

 State in the United States. The early programs of the study of sea lamprey 

 life history and distribution, development and testing of barriers in 

 streams, and screening of chemicals that would selectively destroy larvae 

 were continued, coordinated, refined, and expanded under commission 

 auspices after 1955. The control programs are carried out by agents of the 

 commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Canadian Department 

 of the Environment. Research is funded by, and has been done mostly by, 

 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 



Sea lampreys are most vulnerable to current control methods when 

 concentrated in streams as adults on upstream migrations, as larvae in the 

 streams, or as transformers moving downstream. While tests were carried on 

 to find a selective chemical, a control program by means of mechanical and 



222 



