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Chicago sits on
the shore of Lake Michigan,
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one of the five Great Lakes.
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A restaurant a short walk
from the lakefront
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began serving signature seafood
dishes in the 1940s.
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Shaw's gets a lot of
tourist business from around
the country.
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We've always served lake fish,
both whitefish and perch.
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There you go.
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We have
two whitefish here.
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These come from Lake Superior.
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And then over here
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are perch fillets, yellow lake
perch out of Lake Erie.
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I'd love someday to see lake
trout back on our menu,
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I don't know if that'll
ever happen.
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00:01:46,554 --> 00:01:51,973
The Great Lakes have a natural
organizing force for the people
of the region.
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They touch on eight states
and two Canadian provinces.
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The vastness of them is
really hard to convey.
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When you stand on the shore
of one, it certainly doesn't
feel like a lake.
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They're very, very important
to our economy.
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00:02:13,788 --> 00:02:17,343
The fact that we've got
the world's largest source of
clean fresh water.
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00:02:17,344 --> 00:02:21,555
That's why you can have tens of
millions of people living around
the Great Lakes.
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00:02:23,798 --> 00:02:26,455
The Great Lakes are really
in our DNA.
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One out of five jobs is
related to water.
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Kids grow up and they
have that memory.
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00:02:35,672 --> 00:02:38,605
They associate it with their
time and their summers
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00:02:38,606 --> 00:02:40,849
with their family on
the shores of
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00:02:40,850 --> 00:02:43,784
Lake Michigan or Lake Huron,
whatever is their lake.
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00:02:45,130 --> 00:02:47,270
And fishing is an integral
part of that.
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00:02:50,100 --> 00:02:52,136
The fish that swim in the water
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are part of the lifeblood of
the Great Lakes region.
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00:02:57,625 --> 00:03:01,041
The fishery in the Great Lakes
is unique.
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00:03:01,042 --> 00:03:06,531
This is a way of connecting
son and daughter to dad, mom.
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00:03:18,888 --> 00:03:24,030
Great Lakes fishing
is first described in documents
dating to the 17th century,
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00:03:24,031 --> 00:03:27,654
when European explorers first
saw Indigenous people
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catch tremendous quantities
of fish.
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00:03:32,419 --> 00:03:34,799
We have a relationship
with fish.
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00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:39,079
We survive because of these
relationships.
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00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,496
And these relationships
we can think of them with fish,
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00:03:41,497 --> 00:03:44,947
but also with the water,
with the air,
with the medicine plants.
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00:03:44,948 --> 00:03:46,742
All of creation.
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00:03:46,743 --> 00:03:49,469
So to us,
the importance of fishing
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00:03:49,470 --> 00:03:52,853
is part of that full
relationship with
the natural world.
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00:03:57,444 --> 00:04:00,653
For most of history,
people simply assumed that
the Great Lakes
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00:04:00,654 --> 00:04:04,277
were so vast and packed
with fish
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00:04:04,278 --> 00:04:06,487
that there would always
be plenty to catch.
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00:04:09,318 --> 00:04:12,873
But by the 1950s,
everything had changed.
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00:04:15,772 --> 00:04:19,466
The fish most important to
people were nearly gone.
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00:04:21,744 --> 00:04:23,470
The fish disappeared.
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00:04:25,057 --> 00:04:27,474
No one could explain it,
let alone fix it.
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00:04:29,303 --> 00:04:32,236
Whether you were in
Lake Ontario, or Lake Superior,
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00:04:32,237 --> 00:04:34,515
or everywhere in between,
it was dire.
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00:04:35,689 --> 00:04:38,449
From small towns up
to major cities,
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00:04:38,450 --> 00:04:40,245
it was people's livelihoods.
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00:04:41,936 --> 00:04:47,009
Short on hope,
some remarkable people
tackled the mystery.
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00:04:47,010 --> 00:04:50,876
Their odd discovery still
menaces the Great Lakes today.
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00:04:53,638 --> 00:04:56,364
Their battle against it
dramatically changed
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00:04:56,365 --> 00:05:01,784
how people from all walks
of life connect with these
freshwater seas.
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00:05:54,906 --> 00:05:59,392
People fish the Great
Lakes for different reasons.
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00:05:59,393 --> 00:06:03,569
Recreational fishing,
commercial fishing,
and subsistence fishing
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00:06:03,570 --> 00:06:07,849
are three very different types
of fishing, and all of them are
incredibly important
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00:06:07,850 --> 00:06:10,817
to both the history
and current realities
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00:06:10,818 --> 00:06:12,372
of the Great Lakes.
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00:06:14,581 --> 00:06:19,689
People began fishing
to survive long before the
first Europeans arrived.
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00:06:22,243 --> 00:06:25,073
The Anishinaabe people,
or the Chippewa,
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00:06:25,074 --> 00:06:26,592
bands that are in the area,
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00:06:26,593 --> 00:06:29,388
were a nomadic people.
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00:06:29,389 --> 00:06:32,840
For subsistence, they would
go out from shore and fish.
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00:06:34,255 --> 00:06:36,740
Along the shores of
Lake Superior,
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00:06:36,741 --> 00:06:39,259
they would harvest
primarily in the fall
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00:06:39,260 --> 00:06:42,608
when the whitefish or the lake
trout would come in to spawn.
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00:06:42,609 --> 00:06:45,680
The subsistence fishery provides
food to the family.
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00:06:45,681 --> 00:06:47,165
It's very important.
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00:06:52,239 --> 00:06:55,690
Subsistence fishing is
fishing for survival.
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00:06:55,691 --> 00:06:58,832
Sport fishing is more
for personal enjoyment.
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00:07:05,390 --> 00:07:07,667
From the 16th century on,
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00:07:07,668 --> 00:07:11,913
European immigrants poured into
the Great Lakes region,
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00:07:11,914 --> 00:07:14,468
and many brought
a passion for fishing.
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00:07:17,506 --> 00:07:20,335
Freshwater fishing had been
a recreational pastime
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00:07:20,336 --> 00:07:22,095
in Europe for centuries,
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00:07:22,096 --> 00:07:24,166
and a status symbol
among elites
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00:07:24,167 --> 00:07:27,031
who fished for salmon, trout,
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00:07:27,032 --> 00:07:30,725
whitefish, and other
freshwater varieties.
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00:07:30,726 --> 00:07:34,107
Long before Columbus stumbled
upon the New World,
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00:07:34,108 --> 00:07:38,353
overfishing threatened lakes
and rivers across Europe,
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00:07:38,354 --> 00:07:43,047
and nobles blocked access
to prime fishing spots.
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00:07:43,048 --> 00:07:44,464
Things only worsened.
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00:07:47,950 --> 00:07:50,710
When the first European
military officers
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00:07:50,711 --> 00:07:54,231
and entrepreneurs arrived in
the Great Lakes region,
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00:07:54,232 --> 00:07:56,440
they found its tremendous
abundance
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00:07:56,441 --> 00:07:58,960
of freshwater brimming with
fish species
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00:07:58,961 --> 00:08:00,134
they favored back home.
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00:08:03,034 --> 00:08:06,209
One type of fish proved
especially enticing.
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00:08:08,591 --> 00:08:11,938
Each fall, Atlantic salmon
leave the open sea
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00:08:11,939 --> 00:08:15,701
to spawn in rivers from
Scandinavia to Spain,
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00:08:15,702 --> 00:08:18,463
and anglers have stocked
them for centuries.
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00:08:23,364 --> 00:08:27,540
They also move up
the St. Lawrence River
into Lake Ontario,
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00:08:27,541 --> 00:08:30,510
crowding into tributary
rivers to spawn.
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00:08:33,409 --> 00:08:37,136
As the European immigrant
population on its shores grew,
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00:08:37,137 --> 00:08:39,380
more and more people
targeted them.
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00:08:40,485 --> 00:08:44,177
By one account, the haul
on the North Shore in 1820
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00:08:44,178 --> 00:08:46,595
was so plentiful that,
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00:09:03,543 --> 00:09:05,751
The impressive hauls
drew other immigrants
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00:09:05,752 --> 00:09:10,204
to Lake Ontario,
who launched a boom in
another type of fishing.
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00:09:14,450 --> 00:09:18,004
Great Lakes
commercial fishing, I would
say it's always been here.
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00:09:18,005 --> 00:09:21,801
We'd always been getting fish
that we traded with each other,
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00:09:21,802 --> 00:09:23,596
that we traded with
other people.
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00:09:23,597 --> 00:09:25,771
Fishing was part of
our economy.
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00:09:25,772 --> 00:09:28,049
Not a cash economy,
necessarily,
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00:09:28,050 --> 00:09:32,916
but certainly an economy
of barter and trade.
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00:09:32,917 --> 00:09:35,781
Non-native people came
into the area.
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00:09:35,782 --> 00:09:39,786
They decided to figure out how
they could capitalize on it.
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00:09:41,166 --> 00:09:44,134
From the time of European
settlement in the region,
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00:09:44,135 --> 00:09:48,621
the commercial fishery
was also a major component
of the economy.
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00:09:48,622 --> 00:09:51,211
It's one reason why people
came to the region.
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00:09:52,212 --> 00:09:55,628
Salmon was fished heavily
in Lake Ontario.
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00:09:55,629 --> 00:09:58,493
They would use seine nets
along the shoreline,
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00:09:58,494 --> 00:10:01,255
across shore and bay areas
of the lakes.
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00:10:03,188 --> 00:10:04,879
As cities expanded,
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00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:10,401
spawning streams were dammed to
power gristmills and sawmills.
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00:10:10,402 --> 00:10:14,889
And commercial fishing boomed
with the swelling population.
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00:10:14,890 --> 00:10:17,788
So people used bigger
and bigger nets,
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00:10:17,789 --> 00:10:20,758
capable of snaring scores
of fish at a time.
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00:10:22,311 --> 00:10:25,071
So these were fishing operations
that reached back deeply,
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00:10:25,072 --> 00:10:27,522
deeply into the colonial period.
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00:10:27,523 --> 00:10:31,526
And the colonial period is ripe
with stories of dam building
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00:10:31,527 --> 00:10:36,738
and water diversions
and innumerable
environmental changes
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00:10:36,739 --> 00:10:40,570
that absolutely devastated
fish populations.
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00:10:44,057 --> 00:10:49,545
By 1860, Lake Ontario's
Atlantic salmon were gone.
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00:10:52,548 --> 00:10:54,756
Commercial fishermen at
the time,
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00:10:54,757 --> 00:10:57,794
simply looked at the lake
as a bounty.
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00:10:57,795 --> 00:11:01,487
They had never seen
freshwater resources
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00:11:01,488 --> 00:11:04,663
of the size and breadth
of the Great Lakes,
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00:11:04,664 --> 00:11:08,150
and they were viewed as
an inexhaustible resource.
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00:11:11,636 --> 00:11:15,570
By the time
Lake Ontario's Atlantic salmon
fishery collapsed,
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00:11:15,571 --> 00:11:18,781
European immigrants
fished every Great Lake.
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00:11:22,854 --> 00:11:27,340
The commercial fishing industry,
during the 19th
and 20th century,
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00:11:27,341 --> 00:11:32,069
was significant and embedded
throughout the Great Lakes.
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00:11:32,070 --> 00:11:35,072
Commercial fishing was
intricately tied
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00:11:35,073 --> 00:11:39,629
to the development of
the entire Great Lakes region
as we know it today.
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00:11:45,428 --> 00:11:47,741
Nowhere compared
to Lake Erie.
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00:11:49,570 --> 00:11:52,125
It sat at the heart of
America's industrial boom.
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00:11:58,303 --> 00:12:01,512
Smelters, refineries,
and factories packed
the waterfronts
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00:12:01,513 --> 00:12:03,722
of its lake-shore cities,
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00:12:03,723 --> 00:12:06,379
transforming raw materials
into products
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00:12:06,380 --> 00:12:09,245
bound for East Coast
cities and Europe.
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00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:15,699
Workers from around the world
flooded into the region.
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00:12:15,700 --> 00:12:20,532
And commercial fishing boomed
to help feed the exploding
population.
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00:12:22,638 --> 00:12:24,673
At the dawn of
the 20th century,
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00:12:24,674 --> 00:12:28,263
more than 100 million pounds
of fish were hauled from
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00:12:28,264 --> 00:12:31,267
Lake Erie's shallow
depths each year.
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00:12:36,963 --> 00:12:42,001
The commercial fishery
of Lake Erie targeted
a variety of fish species,
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00:12:42,002 --> 00:12:46,006
but most important
to that commercial fishery
was lake herring.
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00:12:46,938 --> 00:12:51,390
They were actually
ciscoes, or chorogonus artidae.
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00:12:51,391 --> 00:12:53,564
The reason why they got the
name herring is because
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00:12:53,565 --> 00:12:57,499
in the Atlantic Ocean there's
a native herring species
that's marine,
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00:12:57,500 --> 00:13:00,468
or salt water, and they have a
similar role that they play
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00:13:00,469 --> 00:13:02,332
as the herring in
the Great Lakes,
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00:13:02,333 --> 00:13:04,473
even though they're entirely
different species.
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00:13:07,510 --> 00:13:11,791
The fishing industries
around Lake Erie were built
on lake herring.
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00:13:13,171 --> 00:13:17,519
The shipping of fish,
the processing of fish...
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00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,628
It allowed cities to
be built near the water,
both in Ontario and the U.S.
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00:13:24,734 --> 00:13:28,703
When the Lake Erie cisco
fishery is at its height,
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00:13:28,704 --> 00:13:31,568
the commercial fishing
industry is experiencing
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00:13:31,569 --> 00:13:34,088
a lot of the same developments
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00:13:34,089 --> 00:13:36,367
that are taking place
in manufacturing.
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00:13:38,058 --> 00:13:40,578
Schooners are becoming
fish tugs.
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00:13:42,235 --> 00:13:45,306
Nets aren't being pulled out of
the water by hand anymore.
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00:13:45,307 --> 00:13:46,929
There are steam lifters.
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00:13:48,310 --> 00:13:50,587
You have these
technologies emerging,
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00:13:50,588 --> 00:13:52,934
and you have people learning
to use these technologies
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00:13:52,935 --> 00:13:55,179
in a very heavily
extractive way.
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00:13:57,422 --> 00:14:01,874
Lake Erie is much more
industrialized,
much more capitalized,
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00:14:01,875 --> 00:14:04,635
and much more resource-intensive
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00:14:04,636 --> 00:14:08,225
than the commercial fishery
was in Lake Ontario.
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00:14:08,226 --> 00:14:11,989
It's the same industry
with nicer mechanics.
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00:14:15,855 --> 00:14:20,203
In 1924, more than
32 million pounds of herring
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00:14:20,204 --> 00:14:22,619
were hauled from Lake Erie.
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00:14:22,620 --> 00:14:24,966
A year later, the catch crashed
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00:14:24,967 --> 00:14:29,040
to little more than 5 million
pounds and kept falling.
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00:14:31,353 --> 00:14:33,595
Everyone blamed everyone else.
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00:14:33,596 --> 00:14:36,081
No one had any idea what
happened to these fish.
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00:14:36,082 --> 00:14:39,049
All of a sudden,
there were no fish for those
fishermen to catch.
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00:14:39,050 --> 00:14:43,329
And this had huge ramifications,
well, for the economy.
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00:14:43,330 --> 00:14:48,887
It was really an impetus
for full-scale Great Lakes
science to begin.
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00:14:48,888 --> 00:14:51,820
Science into those fisheries
and what was going on.
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00:14:51,821 --> 00:14:54,927
We see a real investment,
particularly on the U.S. side,
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00:14:54,928 --> 00:14:57,033
from the U.S. Bureau of
Fisheries,
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00:14:57,034 --> 00:15:00,588
clearly driven by the economic
importance and value
of the fishery.
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00:15:00,589 --> 00:15:03,281
Otherwise, this investment
would not have been made.
191
00:15:07,389 --> 00:15:10,494
The Bureau of Fisheries
opened a research laboratory
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00:15:10,495 --> 00:15:12,049
in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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00:15:13,982 --> 00:15:17,432
Its first director was the
fisheries biologist,
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00:15:17,433 --> 00:15:18,883
John Van Oosten.
195
00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:25,578
He started out more or less
as a troubleshooter
196
00:15:25,579 --> 00:15:29,962
for complaints that fishermen
had about particular stocks.
197
00:15:29,963 --> 00:15:34,829
He really tried to find out
what was causing grief
to the fishermen
198
00:15:34,830 --> 00:15:36,866
and to correct it.
199
00:15:37,557 --> 00:15:42,043
Lab scientists began
to investigate a range
of potential causes,
200
00:15:42,044 --> 00:15:46,634
from toxic dumping by
the region's factories
and chemical plants
201
00:15:46,635 --> 00:15:50,569
to whether fishing nets
killed too many small fish
202
00:15:50,570 --> 00:15:52,641
before they reached
reproductive age.
203
00:15:54,815 --> 00:15:56,989
While scientists focused
on Lake Erie,
204
00:15:56,990 --> 00:15:59,854
the markets moved their focus
to the upper lakes,
205
00:15:59,855 --> 00:16:02,685
Lake Michigan, Lake Huron,
Lake Superior.
206
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,863
The commercial operations
were widespread throughout
the Great Lakes.
207
00:16:08,864 --> 00:16:14,180
As you moved up the lakes,
you moved more into whitefish
and lake trout.
208
00:16:16,492 --> 00:16:20,633
Lake trout are
the natural top-level predator
209
00:16:20,634 --> 00:16:23,774
that once ruled all
the Great Lakes.
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00:16:23,775 --> 00:16:27,365
The largest ever taken
weighed 102 pounds.
211
00:16:28,608 --> 00:16:30,574
The lake trout's probably
the most important
212
00:16:30,575 --> 00:16:32,852
species of fish in
the Great Lakes.
213
00:16:32,853 --> 00:16:36,339
They were a great
commercial fish.
214
00:16:36,340 --> 00:16:39,342
They're large,
they yield a lot of flesh,
215
00:16:39,343 --> 00:16:42,449
they're a really good return
on investment for fishermen.
216
00:16:43,450 --> 00:16:48,247
It was just too easy to throw
a net in the water,
and pull money out.
217
00:16:48,248 --> 00:16:50,008
That was far too easy.
218
00:16:50,009 --> 00:16:53,218
Mark Rude's family
came to Minnesota from Norway
219
00:16:53,219 --> 00:16:57,049
and began fishing
Lake Superior a century ago.
220
00:16:57,050 --> 00:17:00,121
By the time
I was 12 years old,
221
00:17:00,122 --> 00:17:01,916
I was involved with going
out on the lake
222
00:17:01,917 --> 00:17:06,334
and working with the boats,
maybe helping to clean fish.
223
00:17:06,335 --> 00:17:09,889
By the time I was 14,
I was taking one of the boats
224
00:17:09,890 --> 00:17:13,479
and going out and doing
the nets myself.
225
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:16,310
Lake trout were what
everybody was looking for.
226
00:17:16,311 --> 00:17:18,312
Way back in the old days
227
00:17:18,313 --> 00:17:21,487
why, fat lake trout, or as
they're called up there,
228
00:17:21,488 --> 00:17:23,214
siscowets, were desired.
229
00:17:25,113 --> 00:17:29,289
Ralph Wilcox grew up fishing
Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay.
230
00:17:31,878 --> 00:17:33,534
They got a lot of
names for them.
231
00:17:33,535 --> 00:17:35,743
They're deepwater trout,
they're siscowets,
232
00:17:35,744 --> 00:17:37,952
they're a lot of things,
you know, fat trout.
233
00:17:37,953 --> 00:17:40,196
There's about 10 or 12
different varieties
234
00:17:40,197 --> 00:17:42,336
Grandpa and Dad used to
say out there.
235
00:17:42,337 --> 00:17:45,166
It depends on your habitat
where you catch them.
236
00:17:45,167 --> 00:17:49,653
They'd all look alike,
when you put your nets
in a particular area.
237
00:17:49,654 --> 00:17:51,966
You move your nets
a little ways away,
238
00:17:51,967 --> 00:17:56,040
now you're liable to get fish
that looked entirely different,
still lake trout.
239
00:17:59,802 --> 00:18:03,460
Manitoulin Island sits across
Lake Huron's North Channel
240
00:18:03,461 --> 00:18:05,014
from the rest of Ontario.
241
00:18:07,362 --> 00:18:11,054
George Purvis' family
launched a commercial
fishing business here
242
00:18:11,055 --> 00:18:12,919
five generations ago.
243
00:18:14,990 --> 00:18:18,130
We started here
in the late 1800s.
244
00:18:18,131 --> 00:18:22,169
The fish were mainly
lake trout.
245
00:18:22,170 --> 00:18:24,964
From the early 1900s,
where I have records,
246
00:18:24,965 --> 00:18:28,658
the catch of lake trout
was approximately
247
00:18:28,659 --> 00:18:32,420
350,000 to 450,000
pound a year.
248
00:18:32,421 --> 00:18:35,044
A couple of times it made
500,000 pound.
249
00:18:39,704 --> 00:18:43,638
Most towns on
Lake Huron's shores date
to the logging era
250
00:18:43,639 --> 00:18:48,609
when timber companies built
lakeside sawmills to process
and ship white pine
251
00:18:48,610 --> 00:18:50,887
from the forests
covering the region.
252
00:18:52,579 --> 00:18:55,443
When the big cut or
the harvesting of timber,
253
00:18:55,444 --> 00:18:59,137
which was central to that
northern part of the Midwest,
254
00:18:59,138 --> 00:19:01,518
depleted the resources
and moved out of the area
255
00:19:01,519 --> 00:19:04,452
and many of those companies
relocated to the south,
256
00:19:04,453 --> 00:19:06,765
the commercial fishing
industry remained
257
00:19:06,766 --> 00:19:10,113
a viable economic
alternative for people
258
00:19:10,114 --> 00:19:13,531
that needed work and resources
in the region.
259
00:19:18,260 --> 00:19:21,711
My Grandmother Mertz,
who lived in Rogers City,
260
00:19:21,712 --> 00:19:27,268
owned part of the fishery
and her sons,
261
00:19:27,269 --> 00:19:30,478
Clarence, Lawrence, and Louis,
262
00:19:30,479 --> 00:19:34,137
my father, fished trap nets.
263
00:19:34,138 --> 00:19:38,245
My dad was fishing down
in the Harbor Beach area
264
00:19:38,246 --> 00:19:42,145
in 1934 when he drowned.
265
00:19:42,146 --> 00:19:45,838
And then my mother took over
the fishing business.
266
00:19:45,839 --> 00:19:48,703
My mother had no babysitter.
267
00:19:48,704 --> 00:19:51,499
I grew up on that boat
'cause she worked on the boat
268
00:19:51,500 --> 00:19:53,743
as well as my sister.
269
00:19:53,744 --> 00:19:58,161
We had eight deep trap
nets that we put in
the straits here.
270
00:19:58,162 --> 00:20:00,923
We used to catch
a lot of trout.
271
00:20:04,824 --> 00:20:07,482
Lake Huron's fish
weren't immune to problems.
272
00:20:09,587 --> 00:20:12,002
Lake Trout and all three
of the upper Great Lakes
273
00:20:12,003 --> 00:20:14,971
underwent long-term declines.
274
00:20:14,972 --> 00:20:18,837
The trajectory of decline
steepened dramatically.
275
00:20:18,838 --> 00:20:21,426
Stock collapses reached a point
where the commercial fishermen
276
00:20:21,427 --> 00:20:23,463
basically had to either
quit or move.
277
00:20:25,914 --> 00:20:27,397
Different types of fishermen
are fishing
278
00:20:27,398 --> 00:20:30,538
different types of gear,
and it's their fault.
279
00:20:30,539 --> 00:20:32,057
It's not my fault.
280
00:20:32,058 --> 00:20:34,922
But then they also start talking
to their legislators,
281
00:20:34,923 --> 00:20:36,820
you know,
their members of parliament
282
00:20:36,821 --> 00:20:39,237
or their representatives,
and say,
283
00:20:39,238 --> 00:20:41,687
"Hey, you know,
our entire community
284
00:20:41,688 --> 00:20:43,793
is based on this fishery.
285
00:20:43,794 --> 00:20:46,900
If we don't do something about
it, it's going to disappear."
286
00:20:49,213 --> 00:20:53,423
On the U.S. side,
those politicians looked to
John Van Oosten
287
00:20:53,424 --> 00:20:57,256
and the Ann Arbor Federal
Fisheries Lab for answers.
288
00:20:59,188 --> 00:21:03,537
As the Lake Huron fisheries
declined toward collapse,
289
00:21:03,538 --> 00:21:07,851
fisheries biologists led by
John Van Oosten recognized
290
00:21:07,852 --> 00:21:12,131
that they were seeing a replay
of population declines
291
00:21:12,132 --> 00:21:17,137
that had already taken place in
Lake Erie and earlier in
Lake Ontario.
292
00:21:19,347 --> 00:21:22,141
Van Oosten's being paid
by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries.
293
00:21:22,142 --> 00:21:25,144
He's not really looking
at fish for fish's sake
294
00:21:25,145 --> 00:21:29,321
and the ecosystem,
but he's really trying to
get to the bottom of what
295
00:21:29,322 --> 00:21:31,565
is happening to these
valuable species
296
00:21:31,566 --> 00:21:34,671
and, you know, what can we do to
297
00:21:34,672 --> 00:21:37,881
return them to their
abundance and sustain them.
298
00:21:37,882 --> 00:21:42,023
Van Oosten knew
the Lake Huron catch
was declining,
299
00:21:42,024 --> 00:21:45,234
but the sudden crash just
didn't add up.
300
00:21:45,718 --> 00:21:51,205
After all, Lake Huron was
different from Lake Ontario
and Lake Erie.
301
00:21:51,206 --> 00:21:54,277
Far fewer dams blocked
spawning streams,
302
00:21:54,278 --> 00:21:57,349
and there were no major
industrial cities on its shores
303
00:21:57,350 --> 00:22:00,319
with factories heavily
polluting the water.
304
00:22:01,837 --> 00:22:04,908
Lumbering was the big industry
on Lake Huron,
305
00:22:04,909 --> 00:22:07,911
and floating logs downstream
and across the lake
306
00:22:07,912 --> 00:22:10,914
had destroyed spawning habitat.
307
00:22:10,915 --> 00:22:13,986
But that wasn't anything new.
308
00:22:13,987 --> 00:22:17,127
Like lakes Ontario and Erie,
309
00:22:17,128 --> 00:22:20,028
overfishing was the most
obvious culprit.
310
00:22:23,445 --> 00:22:27,275
It finally led to direct
involvement by federal, state,
311
00:22:27,276 --> 00:22:30,313
and local political
bodies to come
312
00:22:30,314 --> 00:22:33,628
together and try to address
the loss of these resources.
313
00:22:35,319 --> 00:22:38,079
There was a treaty
proposed in 1946,
314
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:42,499
it gave regulatory power to
a binational commission.
315
00:22:44,708 --> 00:22:49,263
Managing this
binational resource means
we have to think about things
316
00:22:49,264 --> 00:22:53,198
like limiting the catch and the
size of fish that you can take
317
00:22:53,199 --> 00:22:55,752
and how many you can take
and what gear you can use
318
00:22:55,753 --> 00:22:59,515
and those are all sort of
regulatory kinds of decisions.
319
00:22:59,516 --> 00:23:03,795
John van Oosten believed
strongly in regulations
320
00:23:03,796 --> 00:23:05,866
and saw them as a way
of maintaining
321
00:23:05,867 --> 00:23:11,147
the financial viability
of these fish stocks that
were being overfished.
322
00:23:11,148 --> 00:23:15,220
They then ran into the very
organized political resistance
323
00:23:15,221 --> 00:23:18,430
of the commercial fishing
industries themselves.
324
00:23:18,431 --> 00:23:22,745
Political and elected officials
were not always in agreement,
325
00:23:22,746 --> 00:23:27,991
especially after the New Deal
when some were still
you know chafing
326
00:23:27,992 --> 00:23:31,512
from the great expansion
of the federal government.
327
00:23:31,513 --> 00:23:35,171
Cross-border regulations were
not going to be issued.
328
00:23:35,172 --> 00:23:38,900
Consistent regulations
were not in the cards.
329
00:23:40,902 --> 00:23:44,594
As things went from
bad to worse on Lake Huron,
330
00:23:44,595 --> 00:23:48,288
word reached van Oosten
about a curious development.
331
00:23:57,056 --> 00:23:58,677
On a bright spring day,
332
00:23:58,678 --> 00:24:02,232
some young people hiked
to a waterfall on
the Ocqueoc River
333
00:24:02,233 --> 00:24:04,753
near Rogers City, Michigan.
334
00:24:06,686 --> 00:24:09,930
They arrived to find their
favorite swimming hole swarming
335
00:24:09,931 --> 00:24:12,830
with strange eel-like
creatures.
336
00:24:16,316 --> 00:24:20,113
They hurried back to
town and told a game
warden what they saw.
337
00:24:22,702 --> 00:24:27,638
The news reminded
John van Oosten of
another strange incident.
338
00:24:31,677 --> 00:24:36,405
Alexander Crewe and his
brothers lived on Lake Erie's
Ontario shore.
339
00:24:38,304 --> 00:24:42,031
On the morning of
November 8th, 1921,
340
00:24:42,032 --> 00:24:45,068
Crewe and his helper motored
to one of several nets
341
00:24:45,069 --> 00:24:47,762
he and his brothers left staked
into the lake bottom.
342
00:24:50,558 --> 00:24:54,112
As they filled box after
box with whitefish,
343
00:24:54,113 --> 00:24:55,942
something odd occurred.
344
00:24:57,944 --> 00:25:00,808
They came across a truly
bizarre creature.
345
00:25:00,809 --> 00:25:03,535
None of them in the boat had
ever seen anything like this.
346
00:25:03,536 --> 00:25:06,124
Alexander Crewe lifted
up the fish
347
00:25:06,125 --> 00:25:08,229
with this creature attached,
348
00:25:08,230 --> 00:25:10,197
ripped it off the fish,
349
00:25:10,198 --> 00:25:14,960
and put it in a jar and
sent it to the University of
Toronto to be analyzed.
350
00:25:14,961 --> 00:25:18,067
The creature was identified
as Petromyzon marinus,
351
00:25:18,068 --> 00:25:20,069
the sea lamprey,
352
00:25:20,070 --> 00:25:22,140
a creature that's native
to the Atlantic Ocean
353
00:25:22,141 --> 00:25:24,729
and not supposed to be in
the Great Lakes.
354
00:25:24,730 --> 00:25:28,560
We have four species of native
lamprey in the Great Lakes.
355
00:25:28,561 --> 00:25:32,150
Sea lampreys are wildly
different than our native
lamprey species.
356
00:25:32,151 --> 00:25:35,568
They grow two to three times
the size of a native lamprey.
357
00:25:36,673 --> 00:25:40,434
Sea lamprey were
known to be in Lake Ontario,
358
00:25:40,435 --> 00:25:44,888
but Crewe caught the first
one ever found in another
Great Lake.
359
00:25:48,132 --> 00:25:51,031
To understand how remarkable
that was,
360
00:25:51,032 --> 00:25:54,311
it helps to know something
about Great Lakes geography.
361
00:25:58,867 --> 00:26:03,596
The Great Lakes region holds
one-fifth of Earth's surface
freshwater.
362
00:26:06,081 --> 00:26:09,774
The Great Lakes are really
one big system
363
00:26:09,775 --> 00:26:14,987
and arguably one big slow-motion
river flowing out to
the Atlantic Ocean.
364
00:26:19,716 --> 00:26:22,788
Rivers connect
the Great Lakes.
365
00:26:24,617 --> 00:26:29,415
The most famous landmark along
a connecting waterway is
Niagara Falls,
366
00:26:31,037 --> 00:26:35,351
over which water from Lake Erie
cascades almost 200 feet
367
00:26:35,352 --> 00:26:37,596
en route to Lake Ontario.
368
00:26:42,635 --> 00:26:47,019
Nature split the Great Lakes
into two distinct aquatic
ecosystems.
369
00:26:48,952 --> 00:26:52,333
Fish and other aquatic
creatures migrated freely
370
00:26:52,334 --> 00:26:54,854
from Lake Superior
to Lake Erie.
371
00:26:56,925 --> 00:27:01,309
They also migrated between Lake
Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean.
372
00:27:04,346 --> 00:27:07,867
But Niagara Falls was
an impassable barrier.
373
00:27:10,594 --> 00:27:13,803
Niagara Falls would have
stopped anything from
getting into Lake Erie.
374
00:27:13,804 --> 00:27:16,220
Nothing could make it
over those massive falls.
375
00:27:17,325 --> 00:27:20,500
At least before
Alexander Crewe's odd catch.
376
00:27:21,916 --> 00:27:23,710
Crewe caught his sea lamprey
377
00:27:23,711 --> 00:27:26,955
200 miles upstream
of Niagara Falls.
378
00:27:28,612 --> 00:27:34,410
Despite the curious location,
no one paid much
attention to it.
379
00:27:34,411 --> 00:27:38,966
The sea lamprey wasn't seen as
being particularly dangerous
380
00:27:38,967 --> 00:27:40,935
when it first appeared.
381
00:27:41,936 --> 00:27:46,665
Six years passed
before another sea lamprey
turned up in Lake Erie.
382
00:27:49,288 --> 00:27:54,293
And this time latched onto
a whitefish near Sandusky,
Ohio in Lake Erie.
383
00:27:56,295 --> 00:28:00,782
John Van Oosten himself went
to confirm this sea lamprey
sighting.
384
00:28:02,957 --> 00:28:06,891
He'd studied reports
about damage they'd caused
in Lake Ontario
385
00:28:06,892 --> 00:28:09,928
and New York's Finger Lakes.
386
00:28:09,929 --> 00:28:13,933
One report from 1897
called sea lamprey...
387
00:28:31,882 --> 00:28:36,955
Having fastened itself,
it rasps away with the saw-like
teeth on its tongue
388
00:28:36,956 --> 00:28:40,338
until it has worn through
the thick skin or scales
389
00:28:40,339 --> 00:28:42,478
of its victim.
390
00:28:42,479 --> 00:28:45,826
Then it has nothing to do but
to remain attached to the fish
391
00:28:45,827 --> 00:28:49,899
and be carried around by it,
sucking blood when it's hungry
392
00:28:49,900 --> 00:28:53,351
and occasionally rasping away
at its raw flesh,
393
00:28:53,352 --> 00:28:56,078
making the hole deeper
and deeper,
394
00:28:56,079 --> 00:28:58,736
if its victim has any
blood left.
395
00:28:58,737 --> 00:29:01,809
Or if not,
it seeks another fish.
396
00:29:14,028 --> 00:29:18,410
They're very primitive,
jawless fish that resemble eels.
397
00:29:18,411 --> 00:29:21,241
But unlike eels,
they don't have paired fins,
398
00:29:21,242 --> 00:29:23,071
jaws, or bony skeletons.
399
00:29:24,555 --> 00:29:27,178
Lampreys are native
to the Atlantic Ocean.
400
00:29:27,179 --> 00:29:30,181
They co-evolved there with
much larger host-species,
401
00:29:30,182 --> 00:29:33,978
attaching to hosts that are far
larger than anything we have
in the Great Lakes.
402
00:29:33,979 --> 00:29:36,808
So, in the Atlantic Ocean,
they act as parasites.
403
00:29:36,809 --> 00:29:39,811
In fact, they're imperiled
in the Atlantic Ocean.
404
00:29:39,812 --> 00:29:44,816
In the Great Lakes,
they are much larger than their
hosts in a relevant sense.
405
00:29:44,817 --> 00:29:46,542
And when they attach
to the host,
406
00:29:46,543 --> 00:29:49,477
they actually serve more
as a predator than a parasite.
407
00:29:52,963 --> 00:29:56,138
There were some individuals that
were very alarmed at the start.
408
00:29:56,139 --> 00:29:59,728
They were the ones that actually
knew the most about
the sea lamprey.
409
00:30:01,765 --> 00:30:03,871
John Van Oosten
was one of them.
410
00:30:05,251 --> 00:30:09,220
He knew that the swarming
mass at the Ocqueoc Falls
swimming hole
411
00:30:09,221 --> 00:30:14,122
could spell catastrophe for
the already struggling fishing
families on Lake Huron.
412
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:21,542
But ten years had passed
since he identified the
Sandusky sea lamprey,
413
00:30:21,543 --> 00:30:24,856
and no more had been reported
until the previous year,
414
00:30:24,857 --> 00:30:27,652
when a skipper walked
into the Milwaukee Museum
415
00:30:27,653 --> 00:30:31,519
carrying one attached to
a Lake Michigan lake trout
he'd caught.
416
00:30:33,901 --> 00:30:35,660
As the fish swims,
417
00:30:35,661 --> 00:30:38,732
logically you would
think the next step for
the invasion would be
418
00:30:38,733 --> 00:30:42,046
through the Detroit River
into Lake Huron
419
00:30:42,047 --> 00:30:45,152
and maybe through the Straits
of Mackinaw, around that area.
420
00:30:45,153 --> 00:30:48,224
That is not at all what happened
and it's quite strange.
421
00:30:48,225 --> 00:30:51,607
The next lamprey that was
detected was found all
the way over
422
00:30:51,608 --> 00:30:54,368
in Lake Michigan
near Milwaukee.
423
00:30:54,369 --> 00:30:56,025
It shocked everyone
at the time,
424
00:30:56,026 --> 00:30:58,477
and no one could explain
how this jump happened.
425
00:30:59,616 --> 00:31:03,999
A museum biologist,
T.E.B. Pope identified it
426
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,967
as the first sea lamprey
found in a Great Lake
427
00:31:06,968 --> 00:31:08,556
upstream of Lake Erie.
428
00:31:10,627 --> 00:31:14,009
Pope alerted the noted
ichthyologist Carl Hubbs
429
00:31:14,010 --> 00:31:17,876
who helped him pen an article
delivering an ominous warning.
430
00:31:49,528 --> 00:31:52,806
John Van Oosten
asked the Michigan Department
of Conservation
431
00:31:52,807 --> 00:31:55,914
to have its game wardens look
out for them in other streams.
432
00:32:00,194 --> 00:32:03,092
Another squirming horde
spotted near a cider mill
433
00:32:03,093 --> 00:32:06,268
in Rochester, Michigan,
20 miles inland
434
00:32:06,269 --> 00:32:08,684
from the nearest
Great Lakes waterway,
435
00:32:08,685 --> 00:32:10,479
confirmed his worst fears
436
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:12,931
that something
alarming was underway.
437
00:32:16,865 --> 00:32:18,590
As the wriggling
creatures were spotted
438
00:32:18,591 --> 00:32:20,868
in more and more tributaries,
439
00:32:20,869 --> 00:32:24,943
fishing families began
seeing a new kind of carnage.
440
00:32:27,255 --> 00:32:29,636
The first sea lamprey
that they saw here,
441
00:32:29,637 --> 00:32:32,984
apparently they say they
brought it to shore in 1934.
442
00:32:32,985 --> 00:32:35,987
They played with it, thought
this was a real oddity,
443
00:32:35,988 --> 00:32:37,955
and didn't know what
to think of this thing.
444
00:32:37,956 --> 00:32:41,855
By 1944, the fish were dead
on the bottom of the lake,
445
00:32:41,856 --> 00:32:45,134
especially in the fall
when they were spawning.
446
00:32:45,135 --> 00:32:47,999
If you swept your nets a
bit on the bottom when
you're pulling them up,
447
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:50,243
it tugs and stinks so bad,
you couldn't stand
448
00:32:50,244 --> 00:32:53,730
to be on the boat from
all the big fish laying
on the bottom.
449
00:32:55,042 --> 00:32:57,077
I was about seven when I saw
450
00:32:57,078 --> 00:33:00,046
my first sea lamprey
on a whitefish,
451
00:33:00,047 --> 00:33:03,773
and I remember workers
on the boat told me
452
00:33:03,774 --> 00:33:07,294
that was going to be my job
to take care of those,
453
00:33:07,295 --> 00:33:10,539
and so I had
the knife in my hand
454
00:33:10,540 --> 00:33:14,267
and I cut that sea lamprey
in about four or five pieces
455
00:33:14,268 --> 00:33:16,096
before he threw it back in.
456
00:33:16,097 --> 00:33:19,514
So that was that.
457
00:33:23,898 --> 00:33:26,003
The Michigan
Department of Conservation
458
00:33:26,004 --> 00:33:30,076
built a device on the Ocqueoc
River to trap sea lamprey
459
00:33:30,077 --> 00:33:33,252
and gauge the size of the
spring spawning run there.
460
00:33:36,083 --> 00:33:40,432
They caught over 3,400
spawning phase sea lampreys.
461
00:33:42,158 --> 00:33:45,160
The Great Lakes Basin has
thousands of tributaries,
462
00:33:45,161 --> 00:33:49,164
so 3,400 sea lampreys in one
small river like the Ocqueoc,
463
00:33:49,165 --> 00:33:51,442
that's a huge red flag.
464
00:33:51,443 --> 00:33:55,412
This was looking like a massive
infestation for the Great Lakes.
465
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,519
But why Lake Huron?
466
00:33:59,658 --> 00:34:01,417
Two great lakes lie between
467
00:34:01,418 --> 00:34:03,488
the sea lamprey's
natural habitat,
468
00:34:03,489 --> 00:34:06,871
the Atlantic Ocean,
and Lake Huron.
469
00:34:06,872 --> 00:34:08,459
Why didn't sea lamprey cause
470
00:34:08,460 --> 00:34:10,738
a similar level of
destruction there?
471
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,570
The sea lamprey needs
access to high-quality water
472
00:34:16,571 --> 00:34:19,056
upstream in every
river where it spawns.
473
00:34:19,057 --> 00:34:21,265
It was in Lake Ontario
for quite a while,
474
00:34:21,266 --> 00:34:23,991
did do a lot of
damage initially.
475
00:34:23,992 --> 00:34:26,891
Its spawning habitat
was really depreciated.
476
00:34:26,892 --> 00:34:29,100
If you look at old maps,
you'll see that
477
00:34:29,101 --> 00:34:33,035
every river had 10, 12,
15 mill dams on it.
478
00:34:33,036 --> 00:34:35,831
The next lake it got
in was Lake Erie.
479
00:34:35,832 --> 00:34:38,868
A lot of the Lake Erie
streams, they were polluted.
480
00:34:38,869 --> 00:34:41,112
They were marginal
for the sea lamprey
481
00:34:41,113 --> 00:34:43,460
to really expand
its population.
482
00:34:44,530 --> 00:34:47,187
The lake trout, which
was the primary prey,
483
00:34:47,188 --> 00:34:49,604
was already essentially
gone from Lake Erie.
484
00:34:50,985 --> 00:34:53,298
It exploded in Lake Huron next.
485
00:34:56,128 --> 00:35:01,132
In 1940, more
than 2,726,000 pounds
486
00:35:01,133 --> 00:35:04,757
of lake trout were caught in
Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
487
00:35:06,587 --> 00:35:09,796
By 1946, the catch had dropped
488
00:35:09,797 --> 00:35:14,526
to only 760,000 pounds
and kept falling.
489
00:35:16,183 --> 00:35:19,944
By 1944, the lake trout
were pretty well gone,
490
00:35:19,945 --> 00:35:23,327
and then we started fishing
whitefish on a regular basis
491
00:35:23,328 --> 00:35:25,225
to try to make a go of it.
492
00:35:25,226 --> 00:35:27,607
When we fished out here,
especially in the fall,
493
00:35:27,608 --> 00:35:30,506
we would get a washtub full
of lamprey every day
494
00:35:30,507 --> 00:35:33,544
attached to the whitefish,
and it was really bad.
495
00:35:33,545 --> 00:35:36,547
We would just see all the fish
on the bottom of the lake dead
496
00:35:36,548 --> 00:35:40,551
with the lamprey marks on them
and it was pretty obvious
what was gonna happen,
497
00:35:40,552 --> 00:35:43,106
that it wasn't going to
be only a matter of time.
498
00:35:45,212 --> 00:35:47,420
The late 1940s is
when we start seeing
499
00:35:47,421 --> 00:35:51,735
lamprey mentioned at
congressional hearings
and parliamentary debates.
500
00:35:52,495 --> 00:35:56,946
Fred Bradley,
the congressman representing
Rogers City, Michigan,
501
00:35:56,947 --> 00:36:00,571
persuaded his colleagues
to hold a hearing about
the catastrophe
502
00:36:00,572 --> 00:36:03,402
devastating Great Lakes
commercial fishing.
503
00:36:06,716 --> 00:36:09,269
The head of the Michigan
Fish Producers Association
504
00:36:09,270 --> 00:36:11,893
testified before
the House Committee.
505
00:36:30,118 --> 00:36:34,225
Even some of the most diehard
anti New Deal-ers out there
506
00:36:34,226 --> 00:36:36,123
would say in the
congressional hearings
507
00:36:36,124 --> 00:36:39,126
that there is no way we're
gonna tackle the lamprey problem
508
00:36:39,127 --> 00:36:41,094
until we work across borders
509
00:36:41,095 --> 00:36:42,958
and we have
the federal government
510
00:36:42,959 --> 00:36:45,582
with its resources step
in to deal with the problem.
511
00:36:46,445 --> 00:36:48,688
The hearings
convinced Congress
512
00:36:48,689 --> 00:36:53,279
to fund research on ways
to control sea lamprey
in the Great Lakes.
513
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:58,767
The allocation was a mere
$20,000 per year for 10 years,
514
00:36:58,768 --> 00:37:03,462
the equivalent of about 270,000
per year in current dollars.
515
00:37:05,153 --> 00:37:08,018
John Van Oosten's federal
lab led the effort.
516
00:37:10,987 --> 00:37:13,678
Van Oosten understood
that no one had a clue
517
00:37:13,679 --> 00:37:17,752
about how to control
sea lamprey, and that
had to change.
518
00:37:21,515 --> 00:37:25,966
He needed someone tenacious
with innovative research skills
519
00:37:25,967 --> 00:37:28,279
and a dogged attention
to detail
520
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,696
to discover their
vulnerabilities.
521
00:37:31,835 --> 00:37:36,219
A University of Michigan
graduate student caught
Van Oosten's attention.
522
00:37:40,258 --> 00:37:43,363
Vernon Applegate grew
up in Queens, New York,
523
00:37:43,364 --> 00:37:46,264
and served in the army
during World War II.
524
00:37:47,851 --> 00:37:50,474
His mil-spec discipline
and determination
525
00:37:50,475 --> 00:37:52,855
impressed Van Oosten
who offered him
526
00:37:52,856 --> 00:37:55,030
the chance to earn his PhD
527
00:37:55,031 --> 00:37:59,380
by developing the intel needed
to wage war on sea lamprey.
528
00:38:02,556 --> 00:38:04,798
Vern Applegate is
a big part of this story.
529
00:38:04,799 --> 00:38:07,975
He's a pioneer researcher
in the sea lamprey world.
530
00:38:09,183 --> 00:38:11,840
Van Oosten sent
Applegate to Rogers City
531
00:38:11,841 --> 00:38:15,084
to set up shop at a former
Depression-era
532
00:38:15,085 --> 00:38:17,535
Civilian Conservation
Corps camp
533
00:38:17,536 --> 00:38:20,125
with an earshot of
the Ocqueoc River.
534
00:38:20,884 --> 00:38:23,645
He tapped its ready
supply of sea lamprey
535
00:38:23,646 --> 00:38:26,717
to launch the most
detailed study ever made
536
00:38:26,718 --> 00:38:28,513
on the animal's lifecycle.
537
00:38:31,170 --> 00:38:34,103
Vern Applegate was
a relentless researcher
538
00:38:34,104 --> 00:38:35,726
and a hard worker.
539
00:38:35,727 --> 00:38:38,212
It was actually said he lived
on cigarettes and coffee.
540
00:38:39,455 --> 00:38:42,906
He applied a military
mindset to his new mission.
541
00:39:02,892 --> 00:39:06,620
Applegate assembled
a team of conservation
workers and locals.
542
00:39:08,449 --> 00:39:11,003
Cliff Kortman hired
on as a handyman.
543
00:39:12,695 --> 00:39:17,043
I come here and asked
for a job and Dr. Applegate
gave me a job.
544
00:39:17,044 --> 00:39:21,013
So I stayed on for 33 years.
545
00:39:25,949 --> 00:39:27,536
Over the next three years,
546
00:39:27,537 --> 00:39:30,884
Applegate's team measured
the sea lamprey invasion
547
00:39:30,885 --> 00:39:36,062
and studied the organism's
behavior and spawning streams.
548
00:39:36,063 --> 00:39:41,137
In December 1949, Applegate
delivered an alarming report.
549
00:39:44,934 --> 00:39:46,762
Where the first
Ocqueoc River weir
550
00:39:46,763 --> 00:39:52,562
caught 3,466 adult sea
lamprey migrating upstream,
551
00:39:54,115 --> 00:39:58,672
five years later, new weirs
there trapped more than 24,000.
552
00:40:10,338 --> 00:40:14,480
Commercial fishing
families were only too aware.
553
00:40:14,481 --> 00:40:17,103
When the
sea lamprey come along,
554
00:40:17,104 --> 00:40:20,865
we were running two gill net
tugs and a trap net operation.
555
00:40:20,866 --> 00:40:22,522
As the fish got fewer
and fewer,
556
00:40:22,523 --> 00:40:25,422
we had to go down to one
boat, lay off two crews.
557
00:40:25,423 --> 00:40:29,564
We stopped fishing
entirely in the mid-'50s.
558
00:40:29,565 --> 00:40:32,532
Whole operations of commercial
fishing boats moved
559
00:40:32,533 --> 00:40:34,914
through the straits
into Lake Michigan,
560
00:40:34,915 --> 00:40:36,536
and then they contributed
561
00:40:36,537 --> 00:40:38,504
to an already
serious decline there
562
00:40:38,505 --> 00:40:40,471
by adding even
more fishing effort
563
00:40:40,472 --> 00:40:42,369
and mortality onto those stocks.
564
00:40:42,370 --> 00:40:44,337
And then some of
the fishing operations
565
00:40:44,338 --> 00:40:46,616
moved over to Lake Superior.
566
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:54,658
Stuart Sivertson's family
567
00:40:54,659 --> 00:40:57,074
was already well
established there.
568
00:40:57,075 --> 00:41:01,665
My grandfather came here
with two brothers in 1892.
569
00:41:01,666 --> 00:41:05,600
He came to Duluth
emigrating from Norway.
570
00:41:05,601 --> 00:41:07,567
He was in it for good.
571
00:41:07,568 --> 00:41:10,570
I don't think he ever did
anything other than fishing.
572
00:41:10,571 --> 00:41:14,264
And they learned about
opportunities at Isle Royale
573
00:41:14,989 --> 00:41:18,785
and he raised
children who wound up
574
00:41:18,786 --> 00:41:22,099
getting involved in the
commercial fishing industry.
575
00:41:22,100 --> 00:41:26,068
They managed to garner
a fairly large fraction
576
00:41:26,069 --> 00:41:29,209
of the catch from Isle Royale.
577
00:41:29,210 --> 00:41:32,627
We first heard about the lamprey
578
00:41:32,628 --> 00:41:36,389
at Isle Royale in the 1940s.
579
00:41:36,390 --> 00:41:39,875
This terrible thing had
happened in Lake Michigan
580
00:41:39,876 --> 00:41:43,500
where the annual
catches of lake trout
581
00:41:43,501 --> 00:41:49,229
had gone from 6 million pounds
annually to 400 pounds
582
00:41:49,230 --> 00:41:51,784
within a stretch of
about three years,
583
00:41:51,785 --> 00:41:54,200
A catastrophe
has been visited
584
00:41:54,201 --> 00:41:56,409
upon these fisheries
by the invasion
585
00:41:56,410 --> 00:41:58,412
of a voracious marine
predator.
586
00:41:59,447 --> 00:42:02,277
Commercial catches
diminished as this parasite
587
00:42:02,278 --> 00:42:04,728
multiplied in
unbelievable numbers.
588
00:42:04,729 --> 00:42:07,385
And then tragically
and abruptly,
589
00:42:07,386 --> 00:42:10,250
the lake trout fisheries
of Lakes Huron and Michigan
590
00:42:10,251 --> 00:42:13,633
collapsed completely as the
fish all but disappeared
591
00:42:13,634 --> 00:42:15,118
from the fishermen's nets.
592
00:42:18,363 --> 00:42:22,090
We were warned by fishermen
from down on the lower lakes.
593
00:42:22,091 --> 00:42:26,266
I remember, as a youngster,
seeing a magazine.
594
00:42:26,267 --> 00:42:29,131
It was Stag magazine
that had a picture
595
00:42:29,132 --> 00:42:33,964
of a fellow staggering out of
the waters of Lake Michigan
596
00:42:33,965 --> 00:42:36,829
with lampreys
hanging on his chest
597
00:42:36,830 --> 00:42:39,522
and a horrified
look on his face.
598
00:42:41,455 --> 00:42:43,974
Newspapers
dubbed sea lamprey
599
00:42:43,975 --> 00:42:48,186
"Dracula of the Lakes,"
spreading the hysteria.
600
00:42:48,876 --> 00:42:51,740
The question was,
is this problem gonna hit us
601
00:42:51,741 --> 00:42:53,087
here in Lake Superior?
602
00:42:54,054 --> 00:42:57,713
We were at a loss as to
what we were going to do.
603
00:43:09,483 --> 00:43:11,588
Vernon Applegate presented
604
00:43:11,589 --> 00:43:14,143
his doctoral
dissertation in 1950,
605
00:43:15,247 --> 00:43:17,524
providing the first
scientific description
606
00:43:17,525 --> 00:43:20,079
of the sea lamprey's
remarkable life cycle
607
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:21,322
in the Great Lakes.
608
00:43:26,258 --> 00:43:29,951
It all begins when lake
water warms in the spring
609
00:43:29,952 --> 00:43:33,264
and adult sea lampreys
venture from deep open water
610
00:43:33,265 --> 00:43:36,821
to gather near shore,
where streams drain the land.
611
00:43:38,616 --> 00:43:41,652
They anxiously roam there
until the water warms
612
00:43:41,653 --> 00:43:43,689
to just the right temperature,
613
00:43:43,690 --> 00:43:46,969
signaling optimum
conditions for procreation.
614
00:43:48,315 --> 00:43:53,215
Then, under the
cover of darkness,
the lampreys move inland,
615
00:43:53,216 --> 00:43:55,666
squirming their way
upstream in search
616
00:43:55,667 --> 00:43:59,775
of suitable river beds where
they spend days building nests.
617
00:44:09,336 --> 00:44:13,546
Once all is ready, males and
females move onto the nests
618
00:44:13,547 --> 00:44:17,619
and intertwine in wriggling
embraces that mix male sperm
619
00:44:17,620 --> 00:44:21,762
with tens of thousands of
eggs released by each female.
620
00:44:26,456 --> 00:44:28,699
Their writhing kicks
up small pebbles
621
00:44:28,700 --> 00:44:30,977
and sand grains from the nest
622
00:44:30,978 --> 00:44:35,326
to which a sticky substance
on each egg's surface adheres.
623
00:44:35,327 --> 00:44:37,777
The pebbles and
sand carry each egg
624
00:44:37,778 --> 00:44:40,539
back into the nest,
anchoring them there.
625
00:44:42,265 --> 00:44:44,094
Lamprey repeat
their mating dances
626
00:44:44,095 --> 00:44:46,822
again and again over
the course of a day or two.
627
00:44:48,237 --> 00:44:51,343
Then with nothing left
to give, they die.
628
00:44:54,001 --> 00:44:57,383
Within two weeks,
hatchlings appear.
629
00:44:57,384 --> 00:45:01,490
Lamprey larvae are
called ammocoetes.
630
00:45:01,491 --> 00:45:05,702
The lampreys live
as harmless larvae
631
00:45:05,703 --> 00:45:07,670
in the tributaries
632
00:45:08,395 --> 00:45:12,501
and filter microscopic
organisms from the water
as feed
633
00:45:12,502 --> 00:45:16,057
and grow from almost
microscopic size
634
00:45:16,058 --> 00:45:18,922
up to about five to six inches.
635
00:45:18,923 --> 00:45:20,578
You'd never know
they're there,
636
00:45:20,579 --> 00:45:23,236
but hundreds of thousands
of larval sea lamprey
637
00:45:23,237 --> 00:45:25,481
can live under the muck
in an infested river.
638
00:45:27,069 --> 00:45:30,278
After about four
years, ammocoetes metamorphose
639
00:45:30,279 --> 00:45:34,076
into free-swimming juveniles
called transformers.
640
00:45:36,734 --> 00:45:39,736
Their mouths become
spiny fish clamps,
641
00:45:39,737 --> 00:45:43,430
and their digestive tracts
convert to handle
different food.
642
00:45:45,777 --> 00:45:47,778
When these changes complete,
643
00:45:47,779 --> 00:45:50,401
transformers migrate
to open water
644
00:45:50,402 --> 00:45:54,337
and enter what Vern Applegate
called the lake phase.
645
00:45:58,928 --> 00:46:02,068
They're now
fish-seeking missiles,
646
00:46:02,069 --> 00:46:06,003
ready to spend up to 18
months latching onto fish
647
00:46:06,004 --> 00:46:08,420
and draining them of
their bodily fluids.
648
00:46:11,389 --> 00:46:13,977
Each lamprey can destroy
40 pounds of fish
649
00:46:13,978 --> 00:46:17,912
in about 12 to 18 months while
they're out there feeding
in the Great Lakes.
650
00:46:17,913 --> 00:46:19,845
So in a very short
period of time,
651
00:46:19,846 --> 00:46:21,847
you can have huge
numbers of lamprey
652
00:46:21,848 --> 00:46:24,711
and each lamprey is
killing or devastating
653
00:46:24,712 --> 00:46:26,231
a large amount of fish.
654
00:46:31,443 --> 00:46:33,203
After serving
their destructive
655
00:46:33,204 --> 00:46:37,586
term of gluttony, lamprey
answer nature's springtime call
656
00:46:37,587 --> 00:46:40,520
to move shoreward and
await the water temperature
657
00:46:40,521 --> 00:46:42,350
green light to head
into streams
658
00:46:42,351 --> 00:46:45,181
and pass the torch
to a new generation.
659
00:46:47,977 --> 00:46:51,462
Vern Applegate's studies
learning the natural history
660
00:46:51,463 --> 00:46:55,673
of the sea lamprey to look for
the points in the life cycle
661
00:46:55,674 --> 00:46:59,747
where control could be feasible,
that was critical.
662
00:47:02,889 --> 00:47:05,235
When Applegate
delivered his dissertation,
663
00:47:05,236 --> 00:47:08,826
few lake trout remained in
Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
664
00:47:12,001 --> 00:47:14,347
Economic losses
have been severe.
665
00:47:14,348 --> 00:47:16,142
On Lakes Huron and Michigan,
666
00:47:16,143 --> 00:47:18,627
entire fleets have
been tied up.
667
00:47:18,628 --> 00:47:22,011
Equipment and buildings have
been abandoned to the elements.
668
00:47:26,982 --> 00:47:31,158
How did such
a destructive invader
get past Niagara Falls?
669
00:47:33,298 --> 00:47:37,855
Most blame the Welland Canal,
which bypasses the falls,
670
00:47:39,649 --> 00:47:42,824
lifting ocean-going
vessels more than 200 feet
671
00:47:42,825 --> 00:47:45,414
from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie.
672
00:47:50,350 --> 00:47:54,111
The canal opened
for shipping in 1829,
673
00:47:54,112 --> 00:47:58,633
so if it's to blame,
why did almost a century pass
674
00:47:58,634 --> 00:48:01,429
before Alexander Crewe
caught the first sea Lamprey
675
00:48:01,430 --> 00:48:03,294
known to have entered
Lake Erie?
676
00:48:07,885 --> 00:48:10,957
Today's Welland Canal
is not the first configuration.
677
00:48:13,614 --> 00:48:15,443
The Welland Canal
was not much more
678
00:48:15,444 --> 00:48:18,239
than a glorified
ditch in the 1800s,
679
00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:20,206
and it was fed
from a water source
680
00:48:20,207 --> 00:48:22,244
in the middle of the
Niagara Escarpment
681
00:48:25,247 --> 00:48:29,767
and created the Welland Canal
channel that split two ways,
682
00:48:29,768 --> 00:48:32,253
so there was no unified flow
683
00:48:32,254 --> 00:48:35,326
through the canal from
Lake Erie into Lake Ontario.
684
00:48:39,675 --> 00:48:41,365
When the canal
was upgraded
685
00:48:41,366 --> 00:48:44,817
to handle larger vessels,
the original water source
686
00:48:44,818 --> 00:48:48,753
proved incapable of providing
the increased flow required.
687
00:48:51,894 --> 00:48:54,275
Engineers tapped Lake Erie,
688
00:48:54,276 --> 00:48:56,587
whose water began
flowing downstream
689
00:48:56,588 --> 00:48:58,107
through the entire canal.
690
00:48:59,212 --> 00:49:02,318
For sea lamprey, that
made all the difference.
691
00:49:06,115 --> 00:49:09,980
Sea lampreys are
programmed adaptively
692
00:49:09,981 --> 00:49:13,984
to move into rivers through
something called positive
rheotaxis.
693
00:49:13,985 --> 00:49:17,160
What a lamprey does is feels
the current with its face
694
00:49:17,161 --> 00:49:19,956
and it instinctively
swims upstream.
695
00:49:19,957 --> 00:49:24,098
After the turn of the century,
when that Welland Canal was
modified, deepened,
696
00:49:24,099 --> 00:49:28,171
and began to flow from Lake Erie
directly into Lake Ontario,
697
00:49:28,172 --> 00:49:31,313
we essentially turned that
canal into one giant river.
698
00:49:32,970 --> 00:49:35,385
Sea lampreys
moved through into Lake Erie
699
00:49:35,386 --> 00:49:37,594
and just continued
right upstream
700
00:49:37,595 --> 00:49:40,701
through connecting
channels from lake to lake
701
00:49:41,979 --> 00:49:44,118
and up the thousands
of tributaries
702
00:49:44,119 --> 00:49:45,741
that feed those Great Lakes.
703
00:49:53,611 --> 00:49:55,508
The economic devastation
704
00:49:55,509 --> 00:49:58,649
spurred the US Congress
to approve emergency funds
705
00:49:58,650 --> 00:50:00,998
to expand the fight
against sea lamprey.
706
00:50:02,758 --> 00:50:04,656
A lot more changed that year.
707
00:50:06,865 --> 00:50:08,694
John Van Oosten retired
708
00:50:08,695 --> 00:50:12,353
and turned the Ann Arbor
Federal Lab over
to James Moffet,
709
00:50:12,354 --> 00:50:15,701
who shifted focus from
studying sea lamprey
710
00:50:15,702 --> 00:50:17,876
to finding ways
to eradicate them.
711
00:50:22,398 --> 00:50:24,813
He hired Applegate
to lead the assault
712
00:50:24,814 --> 00:50:28,231
and laid claim to an abandoned
US lifesaving service
713
00:50:28,232 --> 00:50:31,682
lifeboat station on
Lake Huron's Hammond Bay,
714
00:50:31,683 --> 00:50:33,650
near the mouth of
the Ocqueoc River,
715
00:50:33,651 --> 00:50:36,205
where Applegate devised
a new battle plan.
716
00:50:49,115 --> 00:50:52,221
Prevention of spawning through
the blocking of the stream,
717
00:50:53,188 --> 00:50:55,982
the destruction
of larva lampreys
718
00:50:55,983 --> 00:50:59,331
before they emerge from
the mud and silt flats,
719
00:50:59,332 --> 00:51:03,128
and the destruction of
the newly transformed migrants
720
00:51:03,129 --> 00:51:04,440
on their way to the lake.
721
00:51:05,752 --> 00:51:08,064
Of the three approaches,
the first
722
00:51:08,065 --> 00:51:11,309
and third appear to offer
the greatest promise.
723
00:51:12,759 --> 00:51:14,381
He focused on those.
724
00:51:17,177 --> 00:51:20,145
When they found a stream
teaming with lamprey larvae
725
00:51:20,146 --> 00:51:21,733
they built barriers there.
726
00:51:24,529 --> 00:51:28,014
They started
mechanical weirs first,
727
00:51:28,015 --> 00:51:30,120
fences across the stream,
728
00:51:30,121 --> 00:51:32,295
and then the cart
worked on those fences
729
00:51:32,296 --> 00:51:35,678
and they were
stopping the lamprey.
730
00:51:39,199 --> 00:51:41,131
All it would take
would one breakdown,
731
00:51:41,132 --> 00:51:43,202
and if it occurred
during a spawning run,
732
00:51:43,203 --> 00:51:46,827
you had a spawning population
of lampreys upstream.
733
00:51:49,002 --> 00:51:52,246
Mechanical
barriers came up short,
734
00:51:52,247 --> 00:51:54,145
so Applegate tried
something else.
735
00:51:57,183 --> 00:51:59,149
These were
the electrified barriers.
736
00:51:59,150 --> 00:52:02,152
It was his big ticket idea,
almost like a silver bullet
737
00:52:02,153 --> 00:52:06,122
that he thought was gonna save
the Great Lakes fisheries.
738
00:52:06,123 --> 00:52:08,572
Crews strung
gauntlets of electrodes
739
00:52:08,573 --> 00:52:12,198
from bank to bank powered
by a gas generator.
740
00:52:14,510 --> 00:52:16,822
There was a world
of problems with these.
741
00:52:16,823 --> 00:52:19,445
That electrified field wasn't
selective against any type
742
00:52:19,446 --> 00:52:22,414
of fish or animal whatsoever.
743
00:52:22,415 --> 00:52:24,554
Anything that got into
that electrical current
744
00:52:24,555 --> 00:52:26,970
would be shocked and killed.
745
00:52:26,971 --> 00:52:29,006
They quickly realized
that these were not
746
00:52:29,007 --> 00:52:32,149
gonna be the silver bullet they
thought they were gonna be.
747
00:52:37,706 --> 00:52:40,121
Mechanical
or electrical barriers
748
00:52:40,122 --> 00:52:42,607
didn't validate
Applegate's first strategy,
749
00:52:43,608 --> 00:52:46,059
so he devised versions
to test the third.
750
00:52:48,855 --> 00:52:51,028
But catching
transforming lamprey,
751
00:52:51,029 --> 00:52:54,688
moving from streams to
the lake didn't work either.
752
00:52:57,243 --> 00:53:00,693
Three years in, commercial
fishing on four of the five
753
00:53:00,694 --> 00:53:03,387
Great Lakes was all but dead,
754
00:53:05,630 --> 00:53:09,531
and Applegate still had no
way to stop sea lamprey.
755
00:53:13,190 --> 00:53:14,811
Some in Congress grumbled
756
00:53:14,812 --> 00:53:17,400
that it was a hopeless
waste of money,
757
00:53:17,401 --> 00:53:20,611
but James Moffet
refused to surrender.
758
00:53:23,993 --> 00:53:27,168
Moffet shifted focus away
from blocking those migrating
759
00:53:27,169 --> 00:53:31,034
adult sea lampreys and over
to the larval sea lampreys
760
00:53:31,035 --> 00:53:33,761
that were living
burrowed in the stream.
761
00:53:33,762 --> 00:53:35,935
At the time, there was a lot
762
00:53:35,936 --> 00:53:37,765
of new technologies
coming forth,
763
00:53:37,766 --> 00:53:39,732
especially in
the chemistry world.
764
00:53:39,733 --> 00:53:43,115
There had been chemicals
used for pest species,
765
00:53:43,116 --> 00:53:45,359
things like
controlling mosquitoes
766
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:48,569
or controlling toxic
invasive plants.
767
00:53:48,570 --> 00:53:50,881
But really nothing had
ever been discovered
768
00:53:50,882 --> 00:53:54,231
to selectively kill
a vertebrate animal before.
769
00:53:56,578 --> 00:53:58,441
Moffet backed the research
770
00:53:58,442 --> 00:54:00,339
of a University of
Michigan doctoral student
771
00:54:00,340 --> 00:54:03,792
named Philip Sawyer
to try something new.
772
00:54:05,172 --> 00:54:06,933
He set up shop at Hammond Bay.
773
00:54:09,936 --> 00:54:13,871
They helped him set up a little
bioassay station all to himself.
774
00:54:15,769 --> 00:54:21,015
What Philip Sawyer
did was to look at
775
00:54:21,016 --> 00:54:24,708
all kinds of groups of chemicals
776
00:54:24,709 --> 00:54:29,645
that might have selective
toxicity to lampreys.
777
00:54:31,785 --> 00:54:34,304
He found that some of
the chemicals he was testing
778
00:54:34,305 --> 00:54:38,274
were killing lamprey before
the other creatures in his jars,
779
00:54:38,275 --> 00:54:43,140
and he also noticed that they
had this weird nitrophenol
group to them.
780
00:54:43,141 --> 00:54:46,110
So he was starting to put
together these patterns.
781
00:54:48,077 --> 00:54:51,494
Sawyer moved
to the East coast
after earning his doctorate,
782
00:54:51,495 --> 00:54:54,498
but his work with
chemicals showed promise.
783
00:54:55,292 --> 00:54:58,777
So Moffet and Applegate
transformed Hammond Bay
784
00:54:58,778 --> 00:55:01,919
into a full-blown
chemical research lab.
785
00:55:06,337 --> 00:55:09,857
It was a tremendous long shot
to try to find this chemical
786
00:55:09,858 --> 00:55:13,343
that would selectively kill
sea lamprey without harming
787
00:55:13,344 --> 00:55:16,173
other aquatic animals and
organisms in the stream.
788
00:55:16,174 --> 00:55:20,005
It also couldn't harm animals
that drink from those streams.
789
00:55:20,006 --> 00:55:22,697
It couldn't interfere
with crop irrigation,
790
00:55:22,698 --> 00:55:25,182
human activity in those
streams, people swimming.
791
00:55:25,183 --> 00:55:27,115
It had to be completely safe
792
00:55:27,116 --> 00:55:29,395
and selective to
killing sea lamprey.
793
00:55:30,810 --> 00:55:32,673
They followed
Philip Sawyer's lead
794
00:55:32,674 --> 00:55:35,297
using 10-liter glass jars.
795
00:55:36,402 --> 00:55:39,232
They would fill 'em
with five liters of water.
796
00:55:42,442 --> 00:55:46,032
I'd weigh up the chemical
and put in each jar,
797
00:55:49,449 --> 00:55:52,624
and we'd put two larvae
and two fish in each one,
798
00:55:52,625 --> 00:55:56,662
and then every hour
on the hour, we took
the observation
799
00:55:56,663 --> 00:56:00,702
and most of the time,
it'd kill the fish it didn't
kill the sea lamprey.
800
00:56:02,842 --> 00:56:07,294
We simply tested any chemical
that would dissolve in water.
801
00:56:08,848 --> 00:56:12,368
Chemical after
chemical was tested,
802
00:56:12,369 --> 00:56:15,855
but 1953 ended without
reason for hope.
803
00:56:18,375 --> 00:56:23,138
After more grueling work,
1954 did, too.
804
00:56:25,209 --> 00:56:28,488
1955 was more of the same.
805
00:56:33,873 --> 00:56:37,255
The number of chemicals tested
climbed into the thousands.
806
00:56:41,915 --> 00:56:43,640
Meanwhile, lake trout fishing
807
00:56:43,641 --> 00:56:48,093
was officially declared dead
on lakes Michigan and Huron,
808
00:56:48,094 --> 00:56:51,304
and Lake Superior
showed troubling signs.
809
00:56:55,446 --> 00:56:57,585
Grandfather and his
brother and my dad
810
00:56:57,586 --> 00:56:59,725
fished long lines
for Lake Trout.
811
00:56:59,726 --> 00:57:03,108
Lampreys started showing up
and all of a sudden the trout
812
00:57:03,109 --> 00:57:04,868
that you were getting
up were so ate up
813
00:57:04,869 --> 00:57:07,526
that buyers in Detroit,
Chicago where they would ship
814
00:57:07,527 --> 00:57:10,253
most of them, didn't want
'em all marked up like that.
815
00:57:10,254 --> 00:57:14,637
It went downhill so fast just
in a three or four year period
816
00:57:14,638 --> 00:57:18,019
that you went from catching
a ton or ton and a half
817
00:57:18,020 --> 00:57:20,643
of lake trout in
a day right down to
818
00:57:20,644 --> 00:57:23,612
catching hardly nothing
the next spring.
819
00:57:28,790 --> 00:57:32,413
My mother and father
would write regularly back
820
00:57:32,414 --> 00:57:34,760
and forth when he
was at Isle Royale.
821
00:57:34,761 --> 00:57:37,487
It was the only
communication available.
822
00:57:37,488 --> 00:57:41,457
There was no telephone
or radio at that time.
823
00:57:41,458 --> 00:57:45,288
I remember seeing my
mother crying one day
824
00:57:45,289 --> 00:57:47,911
while she was reading
a letter from my dad,
825
00:57:47,912 --> 00:57:49,879
and I asked her what was wrong,
826
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:53,642
and she said, "The lamprey
have reached Isle Royale."
827
00:57:56,334 --> 00:57:59,509
It turned out to be
the beginning of the end
828
00:57:59,510 --> 00:58:04,480
of the Lake Trout fishery for
many families at Isle Royale
829
00:58:04,481 --> 00:58:06,274
and along the North Shore
830
00:58:06,275 --> 00:58:08,554
and throughout all
of Lake Superior.
831
00:58:10,314 --> 00:58:12,211
The fishery was collapsing.
832
00:58:12,212 --> 00:58:15,870
The economic results
were terrible,
833
00:58:15,871 --> 00:58:19,874
and the condition of
the resource was appalling.
834
00:58:19,875 --> 00:58:21,843
There was no end in sight.
835
00:58:28,574 --> 00:58:31,404
Hammond Bay
technicians soldiered on.
836
00:58:33,544 --> 00:58:36,857
After nearly four years
of frustrating work,
837
00:58:36,858 --> 00:58:40,723
a Dow Chemical company
product named Dowlap
838
00:58:40,724 --> 00:58:43,622
finally showed promise.
839
00:58:43,623 --> 00:58:46,592
The team tested it in
a stream near the lab.
840
00:58:47,524 --> 00:58:50,249
It killed nearly 96%
of the sea lamprey
841
00:58:50,250 --> 00:58:53,115
in the stream without
harming any other organisms.
842
00:58:55,186 --> 00:58:57,394
But it proved to
only be effective
843
00:58:57,395 --> 00:58:58,982
in really large concentrations.
844
00:58:58,983 --> 00:59:02,297
So you just needed too much
of it to get the job done.
845
00:59:05,334 --> 00:59:08,785
So Cliff Kortman
weighed scores more chemicals
846
00:59:08,786 --> 00:59:12,479
and lab technicians tested
them in glass containers.
847
00:59:18,037 --> 00:59:20,590
While Applegate and the
Hammond Bay chemistry team
848
00:59:20,591 --> 00:59:24,837
searched for a miracle,
James Moffet worked
on Congress.
849
00:59:27,011 --> 00:59:31,187
He had help from commercial
fishing industry leaders
850
00:59:31,188 --> 00:59:33,914
and a growing number of
legislators in Congress
851
00:59:33,915 --> 00:59:35,641
and the Canadian Parliament.
852
00:59:38,575 --> 00:59:43,130
In 1955, after years
of stubborn resistance,
853
00:59:43,131 --> 00:59:46,271
the United States Congress
and Canadian Parliament
854
00:59:46,272 --> 00:59:48,342
ratified a bilateral agreement
855
00:59:48,343 --> 00:59:51,795
establishing the Great
Lakes Fishery Commission.
856
00:59:52,658 --> 00:59:56,661
The two nations formally
joined forces to eradicate
857
00:59:56,662 --> 00:59:59,595
or minimize sea
lamprey populations
858
00:59:59,596 --> 01:00:02,011
and ensure
the maximum productivity
859
01:00:02,012 --> 01:00:04,946
of fish of common concern
to the two countries.
860
01:00:08,777 --> 01:00:12,055
Though it really took 'til we
were in pretty dire straits
861
01:00:12,056 --> 01:00:14,644
to get sort of a milieu,
or a time
862
01:00:14,645 --> 01:00:17,233
where US and Canada
could come together
863
01:00:17,234 --> 01:00:19,476
on the Convention for
Great Lakes Fisheries,
864
01:00:19,477 --> 01:00:22,341
and even then, the fishery
commission that was created
865
01:00:22,342 --> 01:00:25,586
under that convention is not
given regulatory authority.
866
01:00:25,587 --> 01:00:28,796
They're given authority to
manage sea lamprey populations,
867
01:00:28,797 --> 01:00:30,695
but they don't have
any authority over
868
01:00:30,696 --> 01:00:32,732
managing any other fish.
869
01:00:39,739 --> 01:00:44,881
In 1957,
five years into the search,
870
01:00:44,882 --> 01:00:48,954
Cliff Kortman weighed
another nitro-group compound
871
01:00:48,955 --> 01:00:50,266
used to make color dyes
872
01:00:50,267 --> 01:00:52,683
for the textile, print
and paint industries.
873
01:00:54,858 --> 01:00:55,996
It surprised him.
874
01:00:55,997 --> 01:00:58,550
Where Dowlap was
killing sea lamprey
875
01:00:58,551 --> 01:01:01,173
at a concentration of
around 13 parts per million,
876
01:01:01,174 --> 01:01:03,728
the new chemical
was killing sea lamprey
877
01:01:03,729 --> 01:01:06,731
at around two parts
per million,
so substantially less,
878
01:01:06,732 --> 01:01:09,319
and it was significantly
more selective
879
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:11,528
at killing those sea lamprey.
880
01:01:11,529 --> 01:01:14,118
Its name
was a mouthful.
881
01:01:19,537 --> 01:01:23,472
...so the Hammond Bay crew
dubbed it TFM for short.
882
01:01:26,475 --> 01:01:31,617
On May 14th, 1958,
James Moffett
and Vern Applegate
883
01:01:31,618 --> 01:01:34,724
watched the first
application of TFM
884
01:01:34,725 --> 01:01:36,727
in Michigan's Mosquito River.
885
01:01:48,152 --> 01:01:51,499
It gave off a vivid
yellowish-green color
886
01:01:51,500 --> 01:01:53,260
when it was applied
to the river,
887
01:01:53,261 --> 01:01:55,124
which made it easy to analyze
888
01:01:55,125 --> 01:01:57,748
so that we knew what
their concentrations were.
889
01:01:59,094 --> 01:02:01,061
They placed
mesh cylinders
890
01:02:01,062 --> 01:02:03,960
filled with sea-lamprey
larvae downstream
891
01:02:03,961 --> 01:02:06,169
to measure how the
chemical's killing power
892
01:02:06,170 --> 01:02:08,000
diminished as it traveled.
893
01:02:09,587 --> 01:02:11,002
Inside the cylinders,
894
01:02:11,003 --> 01:02:13,004
all of the larval
sea-lamprey were dead,
895
01:02:13,005 --> 01:02:15,765
all the way downstream,
so they knew right away
896
01:02:15,766 --> 01:02:17,768
that they had something
big going on here.
897
01:02:18,804 --> 01:02:21,909
The first test worked
better than anticipated,
898
01:02:21,910 --> 01:02:25,396
prompting a second on another
Lake Superior tributary.
899
01:02:27,916 --> 01:02:30,885
Again, it exceeded
expectations.
900
01:02:32,231 --> 01:02:34,473
The team applied TFM
901
01:02:34,474 --> 01:02:38,064
to eight more Lake Superior
tributaries that fall.
902
01:02:43,518 --> 01:02:48,765
In 1959, a full decade after
Vern Applegate began,
903
01:02:50,421 --> 01:02:53,734
the strategy he assumed
least promising,
904
01:02:53,735 --> 01:02:58,429
attacking larvae in streams,
looked like it might succeed.
905
01:03:01,363 --> 01:03:03,848
And the Great Lakes
Fishery Commission
906
01:03:03,849 --> 01:03:06,541
approved an all-out assault.
907
01:03:09,199 --> 01:03:11,303
Everyone focused
on Lake Superior
908
01:03:11,304 --> 01:03:13,374
at the beginning of
sea lamprey control,
909
01:03:13,375 --> 01:03:16,412
because lake trout had not
disappeared completely.
910
01:03:16,413 --> 01:03:20,347
There were remnant populations
scattered around the lake,
911
01:03:20,348 --> 01:03:23,108
unlike Lake Michigan and Lake
Huron, where they were,
912
01:03:23,109 --> 01:03:26,216
for all intents and purposes,
were gone completely.
913
01:03:26,872 --> 01:03:30,840
Hammond Bay teams
applied TFM to 28 streams
914
01:03:30,841 --> 01:03:33,430
on the American side
of Lake Superior...
915
01:03:34,258 --> 01:03:36,881
While Canadian teams
treated nine streams
916
01:03:36,882 --> 01:03:38,435
on their side of the lake.
917
01:03:46,029 --> 01:03:49,928
When winter ended the first
round of TFM applications,
918
01:03:49,929 --> 01:03:53,139
the Great Lakes Fishery
Commission faced a decision.
919
01:03:56,177 --> 01:03:59,248
Their impact on the
sea lamprey population
920
01:03:59,249 --> 01:04:01,906
couldn't be assessed
for two years.
921
01:04:01,907 --> 01:04:05,047
That's how long any larvae
that survived the treatment
922
01:04:05,048 --> 01:04:08,705
and transformed into adults
would be in open water
923
01:04:08,706 --> 01:04:11,502
before returning to the
treated streams to spawn.
924
01:04:15,575 --> 01:04:17,749
Should the Commission
suspend treatments
925
01:04:17,750 --> 01:04:19,994
until their effectiveness
was confirmed?
926
01:04:22,099 --> 01:04:24,722
Or should they continue
the full-scale attack?
927
01:04:26,655 --> 01:04:28,243
They forged ahead.
928
01:04:30,142 --> 01:04:31,901
By the end of the
following autumn,
929
01:04:31,902 --> 01:04:35,249
American and Canadian
teams applied TFM
930
01:04:35,250 --> 01:04:37,389
to all Lake Superior
tributaries
931
01:04:37,390 --> 01:04:40,151
infested with sea
lamprey larvae,
932
01:04:40,152 --> 01:04:41,566
as well as some streams
933
01:04:41,567 --> 01:04:43,638
flowing into Lake
Michigan and Lake Huron.
934
01:04:50,541 --> 01:04:53,579
The early results were
far from encouraging.
935
01:04:54,442 --> 01:04:57,513
Instead of dropping,
the spawning run count
936
01:04:57,514 --> 01:05:00,034
the following spring
almost doubled.
937
01:05:03,692 --> 01:05:05,762
They were still
catching huge amounts
938
01:05:05,763 --> 01:05:09,145
of migrating sea lampreys,
and some chalked this up to,
939
01:05:09,146 --> 01:05:12,528
"Well, maybe there
are tributaries we
don't know about yet.
940
01:05:12,529 --> 01:05:16,635
reproduction that's happening
in rivers that we're not in,"
941
01:05:16,636 --> 01:05:18,154
others chalked it up
to the fact
942
01:05:18,155 --> 01:05:20,225
that we just aren't
killing enough,
943
01:05:20,226 --> 01:05:21,918
and this just wasn't gonna work.
944
01:05:22,746 --> 01:05:25,265
Undeterred,
the Commission relied
945
01:05:25,266 --> 01:05:27,508
on Moffett's and
Applegate's assurances
946
01:05:27,509 --> 01:05:30,202
that the story would be
different the following year.
947
01:05:36,001 --> 01:05:39,486
Eighteen months later, when the
Great Lakes Fishery Commission
948
01:05:39,487 --> 01:05:42,178
met at Ottawa, Ontario,
949
01:05:42,179 --> 01:05:45,562
the future of Great Lakes
fishing hung in the balance.
950
01:05:47,978 --> 01:05:51,118
If hordes of adult sea
lamprey had returned
951
01:05:51,119 --> 01:05:53,845
to treated spawning
streams again,
952
01:05:53,846 --> 01:05:57,331
the 13-year battle to
save Great Lakes fish
953
01:05:57,332 --> 01:05:58,816
would be a failure...
954
01:05:59,610 --> 01:06:01,818
And a fundamental aspect
of life
955
01:06:01,819 --> 01:06:04,718
deeply rooted in the
history of the region
956
01:06:04,719 --> 01:06:06,824
would likely be lost forever.
957
01:06:12,244 --> 01:06:15,040
The Commission chairman
took the microphone.
958
01:06:46,105 --> 01:06:50,178
TFM devastated
the sea lamprey population.
959
01:06:54,803 --> 01:06:58,566
And there were no reports of
harm to people or animals.
960
01:07:03,088 --> 01:07:06,262
The first spawning runs
after the initial treatments
961
01:07:06,263 --> 01:07:08,368
demonstrated, without a doubt,
962
01:07:08,369 --> 01:07:12,614
that the lampreys had been
reduced in significant numbers.
963
01:07:15,376 --> 01:07:19,655
TFM accomplished
the Great Lakes Fishery
Commission's first mission,
964
01:07:19,656 --> 01:07:21,658
to control sea lamprey,
965
01:07:22,555 --> 01:07:24,833
freeing it to focus
on its second.
966
01:07:29,424 --> 01:07:32,081
Sea-lamprey control was
the necessary first step
967
01:07:32,082 --> 01:07:34,463
to restore
the Great Lakes fishery.
968
01:07:34,464 --> 01:07:35,809
Without lamprey control,
969
01:07:35,810 --> 01:07:38,398
fish in the lakes would
not have a fighting chance
970
01:07:38,399 --> 01:07:40,331
to survive old
enough to reproduce,
971
01:07:40,332 --> 01:07:43,645
or to be caught by humans,
or to lead a natural
life in the system.
972
01:07:45,371 --> 01:07:49,857
Government-run fish
hatcheries had been
around since the 1800s,
973
01:07:49,858 --> 01:07:53,620
and most people assumed
that hatchery-raised fish
974
01:07:53,621 --> 01:07:57,521
would restore things to
how they were before
sea lamprey arrived.
975
01:07:59,109 --> 01:08:01,731
After sea lamprey
control proved effective,
976
01:08:01,732 --> 01:08:04,458
officials looked to
hatcheries once again.
977
01:08:04,459 --> 01:08:05,942
The general assumption
978
01:08:05,943 --> 01:08:07,910
was that the native fish
were gonna be restored
979
01:08:07,911 --> 01:08:12,088
to revive these commercial
fisheries that were at
the docks and idle.
980
01:08:18,024 --> 01:08:19,680
Lake trout were
the principle focus
981
01:08:19,681 --> 01:08:23,270
of all of the effort to
restore fish populations
982
01:08:23,271 --> 01:08:26,549
after sea lamprey control
was proven to be effective.
983
01:08:26,550 --> 01:08:30,174
The idea was to put the native
species back in the lake,
984
01:08:30,175 --> 01:08:32,900
and hopefully, that would
lead the whole system
985
01:08:32,901 --> 01:08:35,938
back towards its
original state.
986
01:08:35,939 --> 01:08:38,665
The effort invested
in lake trout recovery
987
01:08:38,666 --> 01:08:43,773
is probably the largest-scale
species recovery program ever.
988
01:08:43,774 --> 01:08:45,775
It exceeds, by quite a margin,
989
01:08:45,776 --> 01:08:48,537
the amount of federal
effort invested
990
01:08:48,538 --> 01:08:50,505
in any other species-recovery
in the country.
991
01:08:51,955 --> 01:08:54,439
From the start,
there were problems.
992
01:08:54,440 --> 01:08:56,924
No matter how many lake
trout they planted,
993
01:08:56,925 --> 01:08:58,995
the populations in
Lake Huron and Lake Michigan
994
01:08:58,996 --> 01:09:00,514
just wouldn't increase.
995
01:09:00,515 --> 01:09:03,172
Sea lamprey weren't
targeting young lake trout,
996
01:09:03,173 --> 01:09:05,761
because they really can't
target that small a fish,
997
01:09:05,762 --> 01:09:07,729
something else was going on.
998
01:09:11,837 --> 01:09:16,220
In the midst of being optimistic
about sea lamprey control,
999
01:09:16,221 --> 01:09:19,155
we got invaded by another
species in the Great Lakes.
1000
01:09:23,504 --> 01:09:26,057
The alewife
is a small prey fish
1001
01:09:26,058 --> 01:09:28,059
native to the Atlantic Ocean
1002
01:09:28,060 --> 01:09:32,271
that first appeared above
Niagara Falls in 1931.
1003
01:09:34,066 --> 01:09:36,930
From there, it spread to
Lakes Huron and Michigan,
1004
01:09:36,931 --> 01:09:41,762
catching the public's attention
when mounds of smelly dead fish
1005
01:09:41,763 --> 01:09:44,525
washed ashore in
the early 1960s.
1006
01:09:46,285 --> 01:09:48,493
I remember, all up
and down Lake Michigan,
1007
01:09:48,494 --> 01:09:52,325
no one was going to the beach,
no one could could go swimming.
1008
01:09:52,326 --> 01:09:57,158
It turned what was, you know,
paradise into hell, basically.
1009
01:10:00,265 --> 01:10:02,680
Sea lampreys
facilitated alewives
1010
01:10:02,681 --> 01:10:06,684
by eliminating predators that
might have stood in the way
1011
01:10:06,685 --> 01:10:09,445
of alewives, or at least,
impeded their progress.
1012
01:10:09,446 --> 01:10:12,655
95-or-more percent of
all the fish biomass
1013
01:10:12,656 --> 01:10:16,245
in Lake Michigan was alewives.
1014
01:10:16,246 --> 01:10:20,111
They kind of threw our plans
for lake trout restoration
1015
01:10:20,112 --> 01:10:24,841
a curve ball, because they
turned out to be not that great
for lake trout either.
1016
01:10:26,256 --> 01:10:29,948
Alewives are a double-edged
sword for lake trout.
1017
01:10:29,949 --> 01:10:32,157
When lake trout are
smaller than alewives,
1018
01:10:32,158 --> 01:10:35,022
they're vulnerable to
being eaten by alewives.
1019
01:10:35,023 --> 01:10:39,303
But the reverse is true when
alewives are smaller than
lake trout.
1020
01:10:39,304 --> 01:10:41,926
So alewives were probably
one of the reasons
1021
01:10:41,927 --> 01:10:44,930
why lake trout could not
reproduce successfully.
1022
01:10:48,382 --> 01:10:52,592
Alewives prayed on
lake trout eggs and larvae,
1023
01:10:52,593 --> 01:10:56,044
threatening the recovery
that TFM made possible.
1024
01:10:57,391 --> 01:11:00,116
Beyond that, lake trout
takes several years
1025
01:11:00,117 --> 01:11:01,980
to reach maturity.
1026
01:11:01,981 --> 01:11:03,465
So it might be a decade
1027
01:11:03,466 --> 01:11:06,295
before hatchery-raised
lake trout that survived
1028
01:11:06,296 --> 01:11:08,574
could dent the
alewife population.
1029
01:11:10,266 --> 01:11:12,164
But what could be done?
1030
01:11:15,478 --> 01:11:17,996
Howard Tanner was
the Chief of Fisheries
1031
01:11:17,997 --> 01:11:21,448
for the Michigan
Department of Conservation.
1032
01:11:21,449 --> 01:11:24,658
While most people saw
alewives as a problem,
1033
01:11:24,659 --> 01:11:27,766
Howard saw a tremendous
opportunity.
1034
01:11:29,561 --> 01:11:32,528
When Howard first came
to be Chief of Fisheries,
1035
01:11:32,529 --> 01:11:36,014
there had been a 10-year decline
in fishing license sales,
1036
01:11:36,015 --> 01:11:37,913
which was the only
source of revenue
1037
01:11:37,914 --> 01:11:41,537
for the department
for fisheries work.
1038
01:11:41,538 --> 01:11:44,575
The then-director,
Ralph McMullen, said,
1039
01:11:44,576 --> 01:11:46,542
"You know, things
aren't going well.
1040
01:11:46,543 --> 01:11:48,958
You need to try
some things new."
1041
01:11:48,959 --> 01:11:51,720
Ralph called me into the office,
we had a long conversation,
1042
01:11:51,721 --> 01:11:54,170
and he ended my
conversation with,
1043
01:11:54,171 --> 01:11:55,758
he said, "Do something.
1044
01:11:55,759 --> 01:11:57,588
And if you can
make it spectacular,
1045
01:11:57,589 --> 01:11:59,798
why, please make
it spectacular."
1046
01:12:00,592 --> 01:12:02,178
What Howard Tanner did
1047
01:12:02,179 --> 01:12:05,906
dramatically changed the
future of Great Lakes fishing
1048
01:12:05,907 --> 01:12:08,771
and made sea lamprey
control more crucial
1049
01:12:08,772 --> 01:12:11,188
than anyone ever imagined.
1050
01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:14,432
Tanner knew something
about the kind of fish
1051
01:12:14,433 --> 01:12:16,297
that excites sport anglers.
1052
01:12:17,505 --> 01:12:20,162
He also knew what
those fish like to eat,
1053
01:12:20,163 --> 01:12:23,718
and alewives were
definitely on the menu.
1054
01:12:25,133 --> 01:12:27,342
The state's
Department of Natural Resources
1055
01:12:27,343 --> 01:12:29,413
chose the coho salmon.
1056
01:12:29,414 --> 01:12:32,450
A million coho eggs
were flown from Oregon.
1057
01:12:32,451 --> 01:12:36,247
Dr. Howard Tanner tells
why this salmon was picked.
1058
01:12:36,248 --> 01:12:39,284
You want a fish that's big
and beautiful and grows fast
1059
01:12:39,285 --> 01:12:41,942
and eats alewife, and is
attractive to the sportsman,
1060
01:12:41,943 --> 01:12:43,530
and one that he likes to catch,
1061
01:12:43,531 --> 01:12:45,532
one that fights well,
one that's beautiful,
1062
01:12:45,533 --> 01:12:47,327
one that tastes good.
1063
01:12:47,328 --> 01:12:49,847
And I guess you'd have to
ask one that's kind of dumb,
1064
01:12:49,848 --> 01:12:51,987
because after all,
you want the fishermen
1065
01:12:51,988 --> 01:12:53,921
to be capable outsmarting
him and catching him.
1066
01:12:56,199 --> 01:12:59,166
Before Michigan put
salmon into the Great Lakes,
1067
01:12:59,167 --> 01:13:03,379
anglers mostly fished smaller,
more tranquil inland lakes.
1068
01:13:04,932 --> 01:13:07,106
The big lakes were for
commercial fishing.
1069
01:13:09,108 --> 01:13:10,696
Salmon changed that.
1070
01:13:12,871 --> 01:13:16,529
They drew fishing fanatics
to the big lakes in droves,
1071
01:13:16,530 --> 01:13:18,497
and not just from local towns.
1072
01:13:20,188 --> 01:13:22,845
Sport anglers from
around the world
1073
01:13:22,846 --> 01:13:25,539
traveled to fish
the Great Lakes.
1074
01:13:27,437 --> 01:13:29,404
And you saw all kinds of boats.
1075
01:13:29,405 --> 01:13:34,892
I mean, small row boats,
speed boats, pontoon boats,
1076
01:13:34,893 --> 01:13:37,722
going out of the
beyond the break walls,
1077
01:13:37,723 --> 01:13:40,829
dangerously into open water
with very little freeboard
1078
01:13:40,830 --> 01:13:44,419
on many of these skiing
boats to fish for salmon.
1079
01:13:44,420 --> 01:13:47,561
They were that excited,
and they were catching fish.
1080
01:13:50,322 --> 01:13:52,530
You could go out
there without trying
1081
01:13:52,531 --> 01:13:55,084
and not having
a ton of knowledge
1082
01:13:55,085 --> 01:13:57,155
and catch a lot of
fish and quality fish,
1083
01:13:57,156 --> 01:13:58,640
and it was consistent.
1084
01:13:58,641 --> 01:14:00,849
They call it salmon
fever for a reason,
1085
01:14:00,850 --> 01:14:03,646
because once you start catching
salmon, it's hard to stop.
1086
01:14:05,233 --> 01:14:07,097
Salmon fight like crazy.
1087
01:14:08,340 --> 01:14:10,893
They roam
the entire water column,
1088
01:14:10,894 --> 01:14:14,276
so you don't always
have to fish deep,
1089
01:14:14,277 --> 01:14:16,451
and they return to
streams to spawn,
1090
01:14:16,452 --> 01:14:19,316
giving landlubbers the chance
to get in on the action.
1091
01:14:23,148 --> 01:14:26,391
Most importantly,
for fisheries managers,
1092
01:14:26,392 --> 01:14:29,360
salmon grow much
faster than lake trout
1093
01:14:29,361 --> 01:14:32,501
and they eat
alewives voraciously,
1094
01:14:32,502 --> 01:14:36,679
so they quickly put a big dent
in the alewife population.
1095
01:14:38,543 --> 01:14:40,613
Every state with
a Great Lake shoreline
1096
01:14:40,614 --> 01:14:42,269
got in on the action,
1097
01:14:42,270 --> 01:14:45,652
planting salmon
in their own streams.
1098
01:14:45,653 --> 01:14:49,657
So did Ontario, making it
an international effort.
1099
01:14:51,832 --> 01:14:56,456
Salmon made the Great Lakes
a world-renowned fishing
destination,
1100
01:14:56,457 --> 01:14:59,148
launching a multi-billion
dollar industry
1101
01:14:59,149 --> 01:15:02,359
that revitalized struggling
lake shore towns.
1102
01:15:08,124 --> 01:15:12,403
Lots of salmon early on
had scarring and-or had
sea lamprey attached,
1103
01:15:12,404 --> 01:15:15,061
so without the
prospect of control,
1104
01:15:15,062 --> 01:15:17,064
we would've never
introduced salmon.
1105
01:15:20,585 --> 01:15:22,724
Before the
recreational fishing boom,
1106
01:15:22,725 --> 01:15:25,347
TFM was never applied
to tributaries
1107
01:15:25,348 --> 01:15:27,626
feeding Lakes Ontario and Erie.
1108
01:15:29,525 --> 01:15:33,528
That changed when Ontario,
New York State, Pennsylvania,
1109
01:15:33,529 --> 01:15:36,117
and Ohio began stocking salmon.
1110
01:15:37,843 --> 01:15:42,088
It was a very high wounding
rate, so the folks down
there decided
1111
01:15:42,089 --> 01:15:46,402
that there was no sense of
us putting in fish if
they're not gonna survive.
1112
01:15:46,403 --> 01:15:48,888
So we started our original
survey work down there
1113
01:15:48,889 --> 01:15:50,924
in the early 70s,
1114
01:15:50,925 --> 01:15:53,238
and then picked up
on the treatments.
1115
01:15:56,379 --> 01:15:59,588
The recreational fishery
opportunities in
the Great Lakes
1116
01:15:59,589 --> 01:16:02,418
were really unexploited
at that time
1117
01:16:02,419 --> 01:16:04,767
and offered tremendous
opportunities.
1118
01:16:07,010 --> 01:16:10,081
The salmon introduction
kind of paved the way
1119
01:16:10,082 --> 01:16:12,049
for looking at the Great Lakes
1120
01:16:12,050 --> 01:16:15,880
as a source of recreational
fishing opportunities,
1121
01:16:15,881 --> 01:16:18,677
more so than it had ever
happened in the past.
1122
01:16:20,541 --> 01:16:22,784
Sea lamprey control
made it all possible.
1123
01:16:22,785 --> 01:16:25,649
Salmon are just as susceptible
to sea lamprey attacks
1124
01:16:25,650 --> 01:16:27,167
as lake trout are,
1125
01:16:27,168 --> 01:16:29,238
and so people came
back to the water.
1126
01:16:29,239 --> 01:16:31,171
There was a new thing
to come back to.
1127
01:16:31,172 --> 01:16:34,140
It was salmon fishing,
it was sport fishing.
1128
01:16:34,141 --> 01:16:36,660
Even fishing for lake
trout became popular again,
1129
01:16:36,661 --> 01:16:38,421
and still is today.
1130
01:16:51,814 --> 01:16:54,678
As they have
since Vernon Applegate's day,
1131
01:16:54,679 --> 01:16:58,165
crews still inspect streams
for sea lamprey larvae.
1132
01:17:07,519 --> 01:17:08,933
And treatment teams deploy
1133
01:17:08,934 --> 01:17:11,040
to where troubling
numbers are found.
1134
01:17:12,628 --> 01:17:14,939
People think that the
sea lamprey problem
1135
01:17:14,940 --> 01:17:16,458
was dealt with years ago.
1136
01:17:16,459 --> 01:17:19,496
They don't realize that
it's an ongoing program.
1137
01:17:22,465 --> 01:17:24,811
TFM remains the foundation
1138
01:17:24,812 --> 01:17:26,710
of the Great Lakes
Fishery Commission's
1139
01:17:26,711 --> 01:17:28,954
sea lamprey control program.
1140
01:17:30,335 --> 01:17:32,647
TFM stood
the test of time.
1141
01:17:32,648 --> 01:17:35,063
It has been studied
and followed.
1142
01:17:35,064 --> 01:17:37,582
Once it reaches the
open water of the lakes,
1143
01:17:37,583 --> 01:17:41,553
it dilutes to concentrations
that cannot even be measured.
1144
01:17:43,728 --> 01:17:45,521
TFM is very selective.
1145
01:17:45,522 --> 01:17:47,662
It's not persistent
in the environment,
1146
01:17:47,663 --> 01:17:49,111
it doesn't bioaccumulate,
1147
01:17:49,112 --> 01:17:51,805
and it's really one of the
safest pesticides there is.
1148
01:17:53,738 --> 01:17:55,739
Obviously, you don't
want chemicals in water,
1149
01:17:55,740 --> 01:17:57,844
you don't want chemicals
in the Great Lakes,
1150
01:17:57,845 --> 01:18:00,571
but chemicals are a form
of pollution that dilutes,
1151
01:18:00,572 --> 01:18:02,193
that disperses.
1152
01:18:02,194 --> 01:18:05,507
Invasive species are a
pollution that reproduces.
1153
01:18:05,508 --> 01:18:10,339
If you can find a way to
contain that explosive growth
1154
01:18:10,340 --> 01:18:14,309
of this living, reproducing
awful pollution,
1155
01:18:14,310 --> 01:18:16,415
then you gotta take
a serious look at doing that.
1156
01:18:21,731 --> 01:18:24,802
Sea lamprey management
and the use of chemical controls
1157
01:18:24,803 --> 01:18:28,323
has been going on for so long,
and it has been successful.
1158
01:18:28,324 --> 01:18:29,773
And so I think by and large,
1159
01:18:29,774 --> 01:18:31,878
people in the
environmental community,
1160
01:18:31,879 --> 01:18:34,605
members of the public,
don't actually think too much
1161
01:18:34,606 --> 01:18:36,366
about the fact
that it's going on.
1162
01:18:37,782 --> 01:18:39,886
We have to be
exceptionally careful
1163
01:18:39,887 --> 01:18:42,302
with what humans
put in the water.
1164
01:18:42,303 --> 01:18:44,926
I don't think that means
the method has to be stopped,
1165
01:18:44,927 --> 01:18:47,307
but I think a lot of
thinking needs to go into,
1166
01:18:47,308 --> 01:18:50,552
how can we ensure
that there continues
1167
01:18:50,553 --> 01:18:53,313
to be no material
deleterious effects
1168
01:18:53,314 --> 01:18:56,283
by introducing these chemicals
into the water system?
1169
01:18:58,906 --> 01:19:00,942
Sea lamprey control
is constantly evolving,
1170
01:19:00,943 --> 01:19:02,529
and this is really important.
1171
01:19:02,530 --> 01:19:04,704
It's evolving both
with technology,
1172
01:19:04,705 --> 01:19:06,811
but also to a changing society.
1173
01:19:09,675 --> 01:19:11,987
The goalposts
are moving on us.
1174
01:19:11,988 --> 01:19:14,507
The problem is going
to be to find a way
1175
01:19:14,508 --> 01:19:16,543
to control sea lampreys
1176
01:19:16,544 --> 01:19:18,994
when actually the Great
Lakes have been made
1177
01:19:18,995 --> 01:19:21,032
much more hospitable to them.
1178
01:19:25,726 --> 01:19:28,728
Water flows from
Lake Superior into Lake Huron
1179
01:19:28,729 --> 01:19:30,489
through the St. Mary's River.
1180
01:19:32,837 --> 01:19:36,494
Canadian and American cities,
both named Sault Ste. Marie,
1181
01:19:36,495 --> 01:19:39,360
straddle the rapids
where whitefish spawn,
1182
01:19:40,258 --> 01:19:42,017
drawing Indigenous people
1183
01:19:42,018 --> 01:19:45,366
long before Europeans first
came to the Great Lakes.
1184
01:19:48,542 --> 01:19:51,924
By the 1950s, much of
the river was transformed
1185
01:19:51,925 --> 01:19:55,272
into a canal and lock
system for ships,
1186
01:19:55,273 --> 01:19:58,069
and whitefish no
longer came to spawn.
1187
01:19:59,933 --> 01:20:03,487
In the 1960s, Dr. Jim Tibbles,
1188
01:20:03,488 --> 01:20:07,042
the director of the Sea Lamprey
Control Center at the time,
1189
01:20:07,043 --> 01:20:10,597
referred to the St. Mary's
River as a biological desert,
1190
01:20:10,598 --> 01:20:13,738
meaning that it didn't
support life of any kind.
1191
01:20:13,739 --> 01:20:17,157
It was highly polluted and
very little usable habitat.
1192
01:20:19,711 --> 01:20:21,125
The Canadian Parliament
1193
01:20:21,126 --> 01:20:24,232
and US Congress passed
major environmental laws
1194
01:20:24,233 --> 01:20:26,407
that dramatically
cut pollution.
1195
01:20:27,995 --> 01:20:29,582
When the water cleared,
1196
01:20:29,583 --> 01:20:33,241
whitefish returned to their
historic spawning grounds.
1197
01:20:33,242 --> 01:20:34,795
But they weren't alone.
1198
01:20:35,658 --> 01:20:38,660
We saw a gradual increase
1199
01:20:38,661 --> 01:20:42,319
in the abundance of larval
sea lamprey in the St. Mary's
1200
01:20:42,320 --> 01:20:46,116
to the point where it was
probably the number one source
1201
01:20:46,117 --> 01:20:48,704
of parasitic sea
lamprey in Lake Huron,
1202
01:20:48,705 --> 01:20:50,052
if not the Great Lakes.
1203
01:20:51,605 --> 01:20:53,778
Their numbers
rocketed so dramatically
1204
01:20:53,779 --> 01:20:57,368
in Lake Huron, they threatened
to destroy the fisheries
1205
01:20:57,369 --> 01:20:59,544
that took so long to rebuild.
1206
01:21:04,998 --> 01:21:10,692
There are certain rivers
that can't be effectively
treated with TFM
1207
01:21:10,693 --> 01:21:13,971
because of their size,
water volume.
1208
01:21:13,972 --> 01:21:16,801
When you get down into the
bigger connecting channels
1209
01:21:16,802 --> 01:21:19,943
down in the St. Clair, down in
the Detroit River area and that,
1210
01:21:19,944 --> 01:21:21,876
they're just so huge
and so vast
1211
01:21:21,877 --> 01:21:26,742
that TFM wouldn't be the answer
at all to try and treat.
1212
01:21:26,743 --> 01:21:30,332
As the streams tributary of
the Great Lakes clean up,
1213
01:21:30,333 --> 01:21:33,059
there's more and more
habitat for sea lamprey.
1214
01:21:33,060 --> 01:21:36,752
We need new technology
that's less costly
1215
01:21:36,753 --> 01:21:38,617
and can work on
these big rivers.
1216
01:21:42,069 --> 01:21:43,863
Lamprey are not
going to go away.
1217
01:21:43,864 --> 01:21:46,486
They are here to stay.
They're part of the Great Lakes
1218
01:21:46,487 --> 01:21:49,110
and every fishery management
decision that has been made
1219
01:21:49,111 --> 01:21:52,942
since the lamprey invasion
has to take sea lamprey
into account.
1220
01:21:54,599 --> 01:21:58,809
This is very much about
countries working together,
1221
01:21:58,810 --> 01:22:00,293
states working together,
1222
01:22:00,294 --> 01:22:04,608
communities, tribes working
together, local communities.
1223
01:22:04,609 --> 01:22:06,817
Sea lamprey are not only ugly,
1224
01:22:06,818 --> 01:22:09,303
but they're ugly for the lakes.
1225
01:22:20,383 --> 01:22:23,110
Don Dubin lives
near Chicago, Illinois.
1226
01:22:24,801 --> 01:22:26,664
Fishing is my life.
1227
01:22:26,665 --> 01:22:29,150
I started fishing
as a young kid,
1228
01:22:29,151 --> 01:22:33,533
probably, oh, five,
six years old.
1229
01:22:33,534 --> 01:22:37,573
My grandfather took me
out to the Chicago parks.
1230
01:22:38,505 --> 01:22:42,577
His basement is
a museum to his passion.
1231
01:22:42,578 --> 01:22:47,064
As a young kid, I dreamed of
someday catching a big
trophy fish
1232
01:22:47,065 --> 01:22:49,342
and putting it on my wall.
1233
01:22:49,343 --> 01:22:52,311
And I learned
taxidermy on my own.
1234
01:22:52,312 --> 01:22:57,178
Today I have all the fish
that I really tried to catch.
1235
01:22:57,179 --> 01:22:58,765
I became a woodcarver.
1236
01:22:58,766 --> 01:23:01,389
So I have become an activist
1237
01:23:01,390 --> 01:23:03,253
because fishing in
the Great Lakes is
1238
01:23:03,254 --> 01:23:07,154
such a valuable
resource for people.
1239
01:23:15,576 --> 01:23:18,958
Sportfishing in the Great
Lakes is one of the reasons
1240
01:23:18,959 --> 01:23:20,788
that people live here.
1241
01:23:29,763 --> 01:23:32,489
We pull people in from
all over the country
1242
01:23:32,490 --> 01:23:35,320
who think this is a great
fishery and come to fish.
1243
01:23:39,566 --> 01:23:43,086
This is a fisherman's dream.
1244
01:23:43,087 --> 01:23:45,709
Joe King retired
from the insurance business
1245
01:23:45,710 --> 01:23:47,745
and launched a hunting
and fishing club
1246
01:23:47,746 --> 01:23:49,989
in Indianapolis, Indiana,
1247
01:23:49,990 --> 01:23:52,578
that teaches inner-city
children to fish.
1248
01:23:52,579 --> 01:23:55,063
How do you think it's
about what you wanted?
1249
01:23:55,064 --> 01:23:57,583
It's about any other
fish in the world.
1250
01:23:57,584 --> 01:23:59,447
They are some tough fish.
1251
01:23:59,448 --> 01:24:01,690
Every fall,
he brings mentors from his club
1252
01:24:01,691 --> 01:24:04,177
to Michigan to fish for salmon.
1253
01:24:06,455 --> 01:24:08,732
Over 30-some-odd years
I've been coming up here.
1254
01:24:08,733 --> 01:24:10,941
But you see young adults.
1255
01:24:10,942 --> 01:24:15,359
You see women and you see
men and they're all fishing.
1256
01:24:15,360 --> 01:24:16,912
They just enjoy it.
1257
01:24:16,913 --> 01:24:18,535
It's just a beautiful place
1258
01:24:18,536 --> 01:24:21,194
and a true outdoorsman,
this is heaven.
1259
01:24:28,684 --> 01:24:30,926
Commercial
fishing came back too
1260
01:24:30,927 --> 01:24:33,170
and is an important
economic engine again
1261
01:24:33,171 --> 01:24:36,000
for First Nations,
tribal communities,
1262
01:24:36,001 --> 01:24:39,867
and small towns on both sides
of the US-Canadian border.
1263
01:24:46,253 --> 01:24:49,497
But the history of Great
Lakes fishing teaches us
1264
01:24:49,498 --> 01:24:51,914
that nothing can be
taken for granted.
1265
01:24:56,021 --> 01:24:59,300
It takes a lot of effort
to control the sea lamprey.
1266
01:24:59,301 --> 01:25:01,060
But without that control,
1267
01:25:01,061 --> 01:25:04,064
there wouldn't be any
fish in the Great Lakes.
1268
01:25:09,966 --> 01:25:11,450
Without
sea lamprey control,
1269
01:25:11,451 --> 01:25:15,178
we couldn't talk about restoring
Great Lakes native fishes.
1270
01:25:15,179 --> 01:25:16,938
We wouldn't talk
about lake trout.
1271
01:25:16,939 --> 01:25:21,080
We really wouldn't talk about
invasive species control at all,
1272
01:25:21,081 --> 01:25:25,119
because there just would be
no fishery out there
to talk about.
1273
01:25:25,120 --> 01:25:28,019
One side is good,
this side is bad.
1274
01:25:29,469 --> 01:25:30,849
The lamprey eel was on it.
1275
01:25:39,410 --> 01:25:42,308
The Hammond Bay
Laboratory still stands
1276
01:25:42,309 --> 01:25:43,966
on the Lake Huron shore.
1277
01:25:48,212 --> 01:25:51,283
In a dusty corner of
a storage shed there,
1278
01:25:51,284 --> 01:25:55,528
stand some forgotten cabinets
filled with index cards,
1279
01:25:55,529 --> 01:25:58,876
each cataloging a chemical
that was analyzed at the lab
1280
01:25:58,877 --> 01:26:02,087
in the search for a weapon
to defeat sea lamprey.
1281
01:26:04,400 --> 01:26:07,126
Vernon Applegate's
team tested thousands
1282
01:26:07,127 --> 01:26:09,887
of compounds acquired
from chemical companies,
1283
01:26:09,888 --> 01:26:13,168
universities, and other
sources around the world.
1284
01:26:16,516 --> 01:26:21,175
The 5,209th compound
tested
1285
01:26:21,176 --> 01:26:23,798
proved to be the needle
in the haystack
1286
01:26:23,799 --> 01:26:26,491
that no one knew
would ever be found.
1287
01:26:30,081 --> 01:26:32,186
Killing fish is
not that difficult.
1288
01:26:32,187 --> 01:26:36,190
There are chemicals out there
that will kill fish effectively.
1289
01:26:36,191 --> 01:26:38,951
What is difficult is
killing exactly the fish
1290
01:26:38,952 --> 01:26:41,333
that you want to kill
and not harming the fish
1291
01:26:41,334 --> 01:26:44,613
that you want to leave in
the river or in the lake.
1292
01:26:47,098 --> 01:26:49,237
I remember talking to
Louie King,
1293
01:26:49,238 --> 01:26:53,690
and he told me of the pit
that he had in his stomach
1294
01:26:53,691 --> 01:26:57,003
when he arrived in northern
Michigan for the first time
1295
01:26:57,004 --> 01:26:59,903
and looked out at Lake Huron
and just saw all this water
1296
01:26:59,904 --> 01:27:02,423
and thought, "How in
the world are we going
1297
01:27:02,424 --> 01:27:05,634
to control a species in
this vast body of water?"
1298
01:27:07,049 --> 01:27:09,153
It's been described
as a moonshot.
1299
01:27:09,154 --> 01:27:11,880
They took a long time,
very methodically,
1300
01:27:11,881 --> 01:27:16,022
to figure out exactly where
the chink in the armor was
1301
01:27:16,023 --> 01:27:18,371
in this devastating species.
1302
01:27:20,165 --> 01:27:21,683
It's truly a remarkable thing
1303
01:27:21,684 --> 01:27:24,099
to find something that
could be so selective.
1304
01:27:24,100 --> 01:27:26,412
If we hadn't discovered TFM,
1305
01:27:26,413 --> 01:27:29,104
the whole economy of the Great
Lakes would probably look
1306
01:27:29,105 --> 01:27:31,246
dramatically different
than it does now.
1307
01:27:33,317 --> 01:27:35,835
Even today, in invasive
species control science,
1308
01:27:35,836 --> 01:27:37,285
sea lamprey is looked at
1309
01:27:37,286 --> 01:27:41,185
as one of the biggest
success stories in existence.
1310
01:27:41,186 --> 01:27:42,946
It's one of the only cases
1311
01:27:42,947 --> 01:27:45,983
where a very destructive
invasive species was
1312
01:27:45,984 --> 01:27:49,780
completely brought under
control, held under control,
1313
01:27:49,781 --> 01:27:54,821
and has allowed an ecosystem
to recover and function.
1314
01:27:56,926 --> 01:28:00,170
It's an amazing program.
Who could have guessed
1315
01:28:00,171 --> 01:28:03,139
that you could actually
control these things?
1316
01:28:06,557 --> 01:28:09,559
The important lesson here is
that government investment
1317
01:28:09,560 --> 01:28:12,251
and science benefit the economy
1318
01:28:12,252 --> 01:28:16,117
and benefit us in our small
communities on the coasts
1319
01:28:16,118 --> 01:28:19,189
who really enjoy and
need the Great Lakes
1320
01:28:19,190 --> 01:28:20,329
as part of our culture.
1321
01:28:26,162 --> 01:28:28,716
The management of
sea lamprey has granted
1322
01:28:28,717 --> 01:28:32,375
the Great Lakes region
a second chance to bring back
1323
01:28:32,376 --> 01:28:35,723
a thriving, naturally
reproducing native fishery,
1324
01:28:35,724 --> 01:28:38,173
and that's got benefits
written all over it
1325
01:28:38,174 --> 01:28:40,280
for Great Lakes communities
across the region.
1326
01:28:42,593 --> 01:28:46,527
It required US and Canadian
ingenuity and expertise
1327
01:28:46,528 --> 01:28:50,082
to work together
to find the solution
1328
01:28:50,083 --> 01:28:53,603
and then to implement it and
to continue that program.
1329
01:28:53,604 --> 01:28:57,123
So we need to work together,
not just on sea lamprey,
1330
01:28:57,124 --> 01:28:58,504
but on other invasive species,
1331
01:28:58,505 --> 01:29:01,681
on other common
challenges in the region.
1332
01:29:07,894 --> 01:29:11,793
We don't know what other
species may be coming.
1333
01:29:11,794 --> 01:29:15,521
And often those mix
of other things,
1334
01:29:15,522 --> 01:29:18,041
we don't know how they'll
relate with each other
1335
01:29:18,042 --> 01:29:20,078
and with what we're
living with now.
1336
01:29:22,667 --> 01:29:26,083
We want to celebrate
the success of the sea lamprey
control program,
1337
01:29:26,084 --> 01:29:28,120
but we also want to
take it as a reminder
1338
01:29:28,121 --> 01:29:31,019
to try to focus on preventing
new invasive species
1339
01:29:31,020 --> 01:29:33,746
from getting into the Great
Lakes in the first place.
1340
01:29:33,747 --> 01:29:37,647
We don't want to have to rely
on technology silver bullets
1341
01:29:37,648 --> 01:29:40,960
or the need to continually
control a species
1342
01:29:40,961 --> 01:29:42,652
in order to protect
the Great Lakes
1343
01:29:42,653 --> 01:29:44,344
for the people who live here.
1344
01:29:45,932 --> 01:29:50,418
The best solution is not
allowing the invasive species
1345
01:29:50,419 --> 01:29:53,491
to get into the Great Lakes
ecosystem in the first place.
1346
01:29:57,392 --> 01:30:00,014
It's so important.
We don't want to lose this.
1347
01:30:00,015 --> 01:30:01,533
We've got to protect it.
1348
01:30:01,534 --> 01:30:03,950
I want to make sure we
have this in the future.