1969 - Great Lakes Fishery Commission

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28 ANNUAL REPORT OF 1969
SEA LAMPREY PROGRAM
29
Table 8.
Plantings (in thousands) of chinook salmon in the
Great Lakes, 1967-1969.
Location 1967 1968 1969
Lake Michigan
(Michigan waters)
Little Manistee River 591 322 300
Muskegon River 211 365 352
Wisconsin waters
Strawberry Creek 66
Total 802 687 718
Lake Supen'or
(Michigan waters)
Big Huron 33
Cherry Creek 50
Anna River 50
Total 33 50 50
Lake Huron
(Michigan waters)
Ocqueoc River 200 200
Thunder Bay River 74 45
Mill Creek 5
Total o 274 250
Lake Ontario
(New York waters)
Little Salmon River 65
Total o o 65
APPENDIX C
LAMPREY CONTROL IN THE UNITED STATES
Bernard R. Smith and E. Louis King, Jr.
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
U.S. Fish and Wile!life Service
Chemical control of sea lampreys in the upper Great Lakes was continued
in 1969 with the treatment of 34 streams. Crews from Ludington ,and
Marquette were combined into a single unit for the first half of the season
(April-June) to treat 6 large streams-3 tributaries of Lake Michigan. and 3 of
Lake Huron (including the Rifle River, which is the most complex stream
system yet treated and probably the largest sea lamprey-producing tributary
of Lake Huron).
The numbers of spawning-run sea lampreys taken at 16 index barriers
in Lake Superior increased for the second successive year. The final count of
9,324 is 845 above the average for the past 7 years (1962-68) and 1,388
above the total in 1968, and is 18 percent of the average catch in the
precontrol period (1958-61).
Lake Superior surveys
Sea lamprey populations were generally light to moderate in 13
streams surveyed before treatment, although heavy concentrations were
found in limited areas of 5 of them-Furnace and Harlow Creeks and the
Sucker, Big Garlic, and Brule Rivers. Twenty-nine other streams that produced
sea lampreys in the past were examined to assess current larval populations;
ammocetes were found in 16. Significant numbers of larvae had
survived earlier treatment in 3 tributaries of the Bad River (treated in 1968)
and 1 tributary of the Ontonagon River (treated in 1967). The size and
number of ammocetes in the other 14 streams indicated that no changes in
the tentative future treatment dates were necessary.
Fourteen streams with no history of lamprey production were resurveyed.
Only 1 sea lamprey was found (at the mouth of the Black River,
Gogebic County, Michigan).
Surveys of lamprey spawning were limited to the Bad River, where 61
nests were found. In previous surveys, 107 nests were counted in 1968,51
in 1967,38 in 1966,44 in 1965, and 189 in 1964.