Leahy Seeks More Funds
For Lake Champlain Lamprey Control

Senator Patrick Leahy is seeking $500,000 for Lake Champlain sea lamprey control in an appropriations bill now before Congress for next year’s federal budget. The 2003 appropriation, if approved by Congress and signed by the President, would supplement more than $750,000 already available through the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission for Champlain lamprey control which Leahy had obtained through previous requests. Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"We want to make sure the necessary funding is available to implement the Lake Champlain sea lamprey control program once permit and pending judicial reviews are complete," Leahy said. "The harm done by sea lamprey on the Lake Champlain fishery is substantial and poses real threats to recreational fishing, to the overall health of our fish population, and to our region’s tourism economy."

In addition to the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission request, Leahy has asked the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to fill a fisheries biologist position which is currently vacant in the agency’s Lake Champlain office. This biologist would help conduct sea lamprey survey and assessment work as part of the overall control effort.

Studies in the early 1980s made clear that restoration of Lake Champlain’s salmon and lake trout fisheries would require a program to control the invasive, parasitic sea lamprey. The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative, composed of Vermont, New York and FWS, launched an eight-year experimental sea lamprey control program on the lake during the 1990s and recently completed a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for a permanent control program. The SEIS was challenged and is currently under review in federal district court. Pending the outcome of this action and appropriate state permits, the Cooperative hopes to resume lamprey control efforts this fall.

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