Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Environmental & Forest Biology
Non Technical Summary
Diadromous fishes in the United States are imperiled throughout their native ranges as aresult of human impacts. Although these fishes were, and in numerous cases remain, impmiant tohuman populations, many members are still poorly understood. Sea lampreys (Petromyzonmarinus) are an anadromous fish species whose ecology has largely been ignored throughout itsendemic range, because of human perceptions about this species. However, sea lampreys remainan abundant member of many anadromous fish communities, and likely offer many of the sameecosystem services (e.g., increasing productivity of habitats, deposition of marine derivednutrients) as other anadromous fishes. Sea lampreys also spend protracted periods, sometimes >7years, within fresh water as larvae (i.e., ammocoetes), allowing for human management andmanipulation of their populations. Although ammocoetes are sometimes abundant and remainresident for long periods, little work has been directed at understanding their populations andecology. Mark-recapture studies have been used extensively to help develop an understanding offish population ecology, but they have not yet been widely applied to understand ammocoeteecology. Therefore, the objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to quantify ammocoetegrowth, loss, and migration rates, (2) to evaluate if ammocoete migration behavior changesthrough the year, and (3) to compare ammocoete populations in different rivers and determineif all populations behave in a similar fashion.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Therefore, the objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to quantify ammocoetegrowth, loss, and migration rates, (2) to evaluate if ammocoete migration behavior changesthrough the year, and (3) to compare ammocoete populations in different rivers and determineif all populations behave in a similar fashion.
Project Methods
Sampling SitesThe Delaware River (NY), Hudson River (NY), and the Penobscot River (ME) will besampled for sea lamprey during the proposed study. Two sites will be located in the Delaware River near Hancock, NY, two sites will be located in the Hudson River (Kaaterskill and theRoeliff Jansen Kill), and one site in the Penobscot River, near Bangor, ME. These sites span600km of the sea lamprey range, and will allow for important comparisons as the challengesfaced by sea lamprey in each river are different. The Delaware River has no dams on the mainstem, allowing unimpeded access to all historic habitats for diadromous fishes on the mainsteam. However, access to the upper reaches (where sampling will occur), has only beenavailable since ~1970, when an anoxic stretch of river was identified and management actionswere put in place to remove it (Hardy 1999, Kaufman et al. 2011). Currently, the sea lampreypopulation in the Delaware River is believed to be healthy (Waldman 2006). The Hudson Riverhas more limited habitat available to sea lampreys than the Delaware River (Waldman 2006), butthe streams targeted in the present study have been available for sea lampreys probably sincebefore Europeans first arrived in the Hudson Valley. Finally, the Penobscot River has recentlyhad two main stem dams removed and another dam has been modified to allow better fishpassage. As a result of the restoration efforts on the Penobscot River the population of sealampreys is expected to increase in the near future as habitat that was inaccessible is repopulatedby migrating adults (Gardner et al. 2012, Penobscot River Restoration Trust 2013).PIT tagging in the Penobscot RiverDr. Stephen Coghlan Jr. and Dr. Joseph Zydlewski have offered to allow me to PIT tagammocoetes in the Penobscot River in a reach where they have conducted research on sealampreys. They would provide access to the PIT tag reader and tags, representing a no-costopportunity to expand upon the proposed study. To limit the finical burden on their end only~20-40 ammocoetes would be PIT tagged. These animals would be tracked in July and Augustduring two sampling occasions; both sampling events would be at least two weeks long. PIT tagdata would provide an extremely fine scale map of ammocoete movement within the stream.