Massive staffing cuts and freezes made by the Trump administration could have serious consequences in the fight against invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes.
The eel-like, parasitic fish prey on species like lake trout, salmon and whitefish using circular rows of sharp teeth.
Sea lamprey are not supposed to be in the Great Lakes, which is why the U.S. spends about $20 million each year to protect the multi-billion dollar fisheries that lamprey threaten. That budget has remained at around $20 million since 2010.
The money pays for a team of seasonal workers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to apply lampricide and set traps in rivers across the region each year, working in tandem with Canadian officials.
But right now, those staff can't be rehired for the season, which begins in April and runs through the fall. On top of that, anywhere from 12 to 14 full-time U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff who helped administer the program were fired.
"If the fired probationary staff are not rehired, and if the hiring freeze isn't lifted in some way — if we can't get past those issues — we're looking at sea lamprey control broadly in the Great Lakes being reduced by at least one-third of our normal capacity," said Greg McClinchey, director of policy and legislative affairs for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which is the binational commission that coordinates lamprey control.
McClinchey said that one-third reduction is the best case scenario if staff can't be rehired.
"The decisions that are being made as they're rolling out will cause a disruption, and the disruption to our program will have a profound economic and ecological effect," McClinchey said.
That effect could be to the tune of millions of dollars — and pounds of fish — lost.
With the program's reduced capacity, McClinchey said about two million more lamprey than normal will emerge from rivers and enter the Great Lakes this year.
"That number of sea lamprey alone will consume and kill about 12 million pounds of fish and could cost the Great Lakes fishing economy ... about $264 million in lost potential," he said. "So this is huge. This is massive."
McClinchey said the Great Lakes Fishery Commission is working with members of Congress to try and secure an exemption or another solution before April, when work typically begins.
"I think that the public has every right to be concerned," he said. "Particularly if you live, work or play around the Great Lakes."
If lamprey control can't continue as normal in rivers across the Great Lakes, the consequences could stretch beyond 2025.
"If you pause that for a year or take rivers out of play, which is what happened during COVID, then the [lamprey] that are reaching ... the parasitic form will now exit the rivers, do their damage to the fishes in the Great Lakes, and then return the next year to spawn, producing even more larvae in the system," said Michael Wagner, associate professor with the department of fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University.
Even if lampricide control returned after a year of limited or no application, the damage would be done, he said.
For species like lake whitefish, that's an existential problem. Whitefish are already on the brink in Lakes Michigan and Huron.
"And the fear would be that if sea lamprey get out of control, maybe they deal a knockout blow to those fisheries, and they're really deeply harmed for years to come," Wagner said.
McClinchey, with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, said representatives from his organization are pounding the pavement in Washington, D.C.
"We're talking with these folks, meeting with offices and trying to find a solution," he said. "The clock is ticking."
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