Sea Lamprey Control

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is busy controlling a parasitic fish pest throughout the Great Lakes region.

They were in the Little Garlic and Upper Garlic Rivers in Marquette County today.

And they were treating the water with lampricides to kill sea lampreys.

The lampreys attach to all kinds of fish and feed off them, which frequently kills the fish.

Sea lampreys don’t have any natural predators to watch out for.

Back in the 1940s and ’50s, their population exploded, killing many fish species in the Great Lakes.

Fish & Wildlife Service employees continuously check lampricide levels in the water throughout the day as the current carries it downstream.

Any river, stream or tributary that has sea lampreys in it needs to be treated every 3 to 5 years to keep their population under control.