Great Lakes Fishery Commission continues efforts to eliminate sea lampreys

Efforts continue to eliminate sea lampreys WATCH: Great Lakes Fishery Commission continues its goal to eliminate sea lampreys as they are dangerous to native species.

SAULT STE. MARIE – The Great Lakes Fishery Commission is funded by the American and Canadian Governments to protect our Great Lakes.

A tedious battle that has been going on for years is the elimination of sea lamprey from our waterways.

In pursuit of their goal, this summer, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by Canadian and American federal governments.

Mike Steeves of the Sea Lamprey Control Program says "it's a parasite on fish. It does damage to native fish stock and kills a lot of lake trout, whitefish… all the native species in the Great Lakes."

Crews this summer focused their efforts on the St. Mary's river. Three decades ago, the river was a super producer for sea lamprey.

"The rapids right below the international bridge… between the two Soo's is some of the best lamprey spawning grounds in the Great Lakes," said Marc Gaden, Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Efforts to eliminate the invasive species are working in some Great Lakes. The numbers of lamprey in Lakes Michigan and Ontario are below target however, that's not the case for the other three. Recent efforts, particularly in Lake Superior, have not helped.

Gaden attributes this to how "Lake Superior simply has a lot of preferred pray, lamprey food in the lake."

He says it will take two years to see if this year's targeted treatment in the St. Mary's River and Lake Superior worked.

Regardless of the outcome, crews know they can't afford to slow down.

"They are opportunistic and if you let control down for a short amount of time, they will spring back out of control and wreak havoc on the ecosystem," explained Gaden.

Officials say lampreys kill less than 10 million pounds of fish in the Great Lakes each year.