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Efforts are increasing to find a more effective solution to the lamprey problem in the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes Fisheries Commission and Michigan State University recently brought a new $3.4 million research lab online.
The lab will be headed by Weiming Li, a professor in the departments of Fisheries and Wildlife and Physiology at MSU.
The goal is to create a genetic biocontrol solution, which could alter lamprey DNA to change their behavior, and reduce or eliminate their threat to game fish.
Lamprey entered Lake Ontario in the mid-1800s, Lake Erie in 1921, and reached the upper Great Lakes by the mid-1930s. They wreaked havoc on the commercial and sport fishing industries, until control programs were begun in the late 1950s.
The combination of lampricides, barriers, traps, and pheromone controls reduced the lamprey population by 95 percent, but the effectiveness of those procedures is waning, as lampreys adapt.
