67 



5. 

 degraded fish eoununity and fishery. No cpacias-specific control 

 •xlsts to eradicate the ruffe. Great Lakes states and federal 

 fisheries managers ar.e debating the value of using non-aeleotiVi». 

 chemioal pisticidea to partially kill a significant portion of the', 

 breeding ruffe population in western Lake Superior (Busiahn, 1993) . 

 The objective would be to delay range-^expansion for a decade or so 

 with hopes that a acre specific and effective control technology 

 can be developed. This strategy has honorable intent, but it 

 represents desperation management. He certainly are not now in 

 control of ruffe expansion and we may never be. The ruffe is 

 another potential nulti-billion dollar annual insult to the 

 existing sportf isheries of North America. 



The best example of how inadequate o\ir society is at 

 initiating control over an unwanted indigenous aquatic organism is 

 the sea lamprey. Although ballast water figures prominently in the 

 introduction of spiny water flea, zebra mussel and ruffe, an 

 earlier '*wave'* of introductions accompanied the canal-building era 

 of the 19th century. Sea lamprey are one of the species that 

 gained access to the Great Lakes via this route. They gained 

 access from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie in 1921 via modifications to 

 the Welland Canal and reached Lake Superior by 1946. Sea lamprey 

 feed on the blood and body fluids of large fish. Once established 

 in the Great Lakes they initially decimated native lake trout 

 populations. They also prevented successful restoration of lake 



