69 



7. 

 lanprey control has enabled the return of vibrant trout and salmon 

 fisheries, which are the backbone of a Great Lakes sportfishing 

 industry estimated to have a value of from $2 to $4 billiortv 

 annually (Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee Hearing Record,/ 

 1991) . 



Despite these technological achievements and our capability to 

 effect control over this organism, sea lamprey control is only a 

 partial success. Why? Because we have not been willing to invest 

 the additional money to maximize control. 



The expansion of sea lamprey in the St. Mary's River where 

 existing control technologies cannot be applied in a cost effective;.' 

 manner has resulted in such an increase in sea lamprey abundance in 

 northern Lake Huron that control is considered to be effectively 

 nonexistent there. The development of promising new control 

 technologies that could be effective in the St. Mary's River and 

 elsewhere is being delayed or shelved entirely due to inadeqtiate 

 funding. Since the late 1980s the capability of the GLFC to 

 conduct its scheduled sea lamprey control activities has been 

 endangered on an annual basis, requiring lobbying efforts and ad 

 hoc Congressional bail-outs to maintain just the very basic control 

 program. Again in 1993, the GLFC has informed cooperating 

 state/provincial natural resource management agencies that in 1994 

 it will be unable to conduct scheduled sea lampr«y control 

 activities in much of the Great Lakes basin, including all of Lake 



