Great Lakes Sea Lamprey: The 70 Year War on a Biological Invader

by Cory Brant

Overview

The stuff of nightmares in both their looks and the wounds inflicted on their victims, sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) are perhaps the deadliest invasive species to ever enter the Great Lakes. At the invasion’s apex in the mid-20th century, harvests of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), the lampreys’ preferred host fish in the Great Lakes, plummeted from peak annual catches of 15 million pounds to just a few hundred thousand pounds per year—a drop of 98% in only a few decades.

Threatening the complete collapse of the fishery, the sea lamprey invasion triggered an environmental awakening in the region and prompted an international treaty that secured unprecedented cooperation across political boundaries to protect the Great Lakes. Fueled by a pioneering scientific spirit, the war on Great Lakes sea lampreys led to discoveries that are the backbone of the program that eventually brought the creature under control and still protects the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world to this day.

Great Lakes Sea Lamprey draws on extensive interviews with individuals who experienced the invasion firsthand as well as a trove of unexplored archival materials to tell the incredible story of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes—what started the invasion, how it was halted, and what this history can teach us about the response to biological invaders in the present and future. Richly illustrated with color and black & white photographs, the book will interest readers concerned with the health of the Great Lakes, the history of the conservation movement, and the ongoing threat of invasive species.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472131563
Publisher:	University of Michigan Regional
Publication date:	08/22/2019
Pages:	214
Sales rank:	1,097,963
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Cory Brant is a former post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For over a decade, his work has focused on sea lampreys, particularly the species’ use of chemical communication and how to exploit that biology as a method of control.
 

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: A Biological Invader 1

Chapter 1 An Ailing Ecosystem 18

Chapter 2 The Deck of the Beatrice M 42

Chapter 3 Nations Are Jolted to Action 59

Chapter 4 First Stab at Sea Lamprey Control 77

Chapter 5 Discovering a Chemical Assassin 103

Chapter 6 Multinational AIS Control 131

Conclusion 144

Notes 159

Index 171

Illustrations following page 102

Editorial Reviews

Cory Brant delivers the definitive history of the sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, weaving together personal interviews, scientific information, compelling stories of invasion and discovery, and the histories of shipping, commercial fishing, the Erie and Welland Canals, and the locks at Sault Ste. Marie—all in dovetail with the life history of the lamprey.”
—Jerry Dennis, author of The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes and The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas
 

From the Publisher

"People who don’t know anything about sea lampreys - and maybe even those who do - might look at the cover of Cory Brant’s Great Lakes Sea Lamprey and think they are holding a volume of science fiction. The mouth of the lamprey looks like a giant suction-cup filled with small sharp teeth. It almost resembles some sort of horrible machine out of Star Wars or The Matrix. Behind the big circle of the mouth is a small, protruding blue eye. Brant gives us a better description early in this excellent history of the creature, its life in the Great Lakes, and the science that has tried to understand and control it. . . If we hope and need to have a healthy fishery in the Great Lakes we will always have to find a way to control sea lampreys. But Brant lets us know that it 'is more than a fish story. It is a reminder of why natural things are important and how each ecosystem is connected.'"
—Michigan Quarterly Review

Michigan Quarterly Review - Keith Taylor

Winner: American Library Association (ALA) 2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

ALA Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Winner: 2020 University of Michigan Press Book Award 

UMP Book Award

Winner: Historical Society of Michigan (HSM) 2020 State History Award

HSM State History Award

Historical Society of Michigan State History Award

Historical Society of Michigan (HSM) State History Award - Historical Society of Michigan

2020 Outstanding Academic Title from Choice

American Library Association (ALA) Choice Outstanding Academic Title - CHOICE

"Colorfully explains lamprey biology with a lay audience in mind, and it exemplifies how to communicate science to the public. . . This book is definitely a must read for everyone interested in Sea Lamprey in the Great Lakes, but it will be a pleasure to read, not an obligation."
—Fisheries

Fisheries - Margaret F. Docker