The non-native sea lamprey population is above targets in all five Great Lakes, and onerous travel restrictions and lockdown mandates implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic are to blame, a new study has found.
The number of highly noxious and predatory sea lampreys spiked after field crews were curbed in conducting sea lamprey control in 2020 and 2021. Because of the life cycle of sea lampreys, scientists said they now see the consequences of the seasons with reduced control.
The findings — “Sea lamprey control reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic corresponds to rapid increase in sea lamprey abundance” — were published in March in the journal Fisheries. A team of 15 scientists from six agencies conducted the study.
“Like a coiled spring, sea lamprey populations bounced back quickly when control was relaxed,” Dr. Ben Marcy-Quay, a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and lead author of the study, said in a release.
The invasive fish, which are native to the Atlantic Ocean, made their way to the upper Great Lakes via shipping canals in the mid-1800s and early 1900s. They use a “tooth-filled, suction cup mouth” to attach to fish; they file a hole through the fish’s skin and scales with a “piston-like rasping tongue” and feed on a fish’s body fluids and blood.
“After more than six decades of successful sea lamprey control, the reduced effort during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that if controls are ceased or relaxed for even a short period of time, sea lamprey populations will rebound, and the fishery will suffer,” Jim McKane, vice chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, said in an earlier release.
A sea lamprey can kill up to 40 pounds of fish during its “parasitic stage.” Until authorities started controlling sea lampreys in the 1950s, the species killed far more fish than humans and “caused considerable harm” to native fish, such as lake trout, whitefish, ciscoes and walleye.
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The sea lamprey population peaked in the mid-1900s when it hit nearly 2.5 million. At the time, the lampreys were killing 100 million pounds of fish yearly.
However, the commission thinks sea lamprey numbers are declining thanks to recent levels of sea lamprey control.
Of course, on March 23, 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the now infamous “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order.
It ordered all Michigan businesses and operations that aren’t a part of the “critical infrastructure workforce” to suspend unnecessary in-person operations to sustain or protect life. Michiganders could “only leave their home or place of residence under very limited circumstances” and had to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
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“I know this will be hard, but it will be temporary. If we all come together, get serious, and do our part by staying home, we can stay safe and save lives.”
Saving lives, however, apparently didn’t extend to some fish in the Great Lakes. In hindsight, the misguided action seemingly wreaked havoc and caused ecological damage on the Great Lakes.
“Ongoing, consistent sea lamprey control is critically important for preventing damage to Great Lakes fish by invasive sea lampreys,” Troy Mayor Ethan Baker, chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, said in a release.
“This research shows that sea lamprey control must continue each year to keep populations of this harmful invasive species in check,” Baker added. “If we take our foot off the gas, even for a short while, sea lamprey populations will increase rapidly and cause considerable damage to fish.”
Additionally, if Whitmer thought her COVID restrictions made sense on paper, she had an odd way of showing it. The governor was forced to apologize for violating her own mandate in May 2021.
A photo that surfaced on social media showed Whitmer at a restaurant with at least 12 friends, Breitbart reported at the time. The group was seated at tables that had been pushed together.
She also later told CNN that the mandates “don’t make a lot of sense.”