“To help combat the invasive, eel-like fish, Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation on Thursday for the state to spend up to $564,500 in the next two fiscal years on lamprey control efforts on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

 

The controls include chemical treatments and barriers that block the movement of swimming lamprey, which according to the Wisconsin DNR ‘have no jaws, no true teeth, no paired fins and a skeleton made of cartilage, not true bone.’

 

The state funds are expected to be matched with federal dollars for control efforts that are taking place across the Great Lakes basin.

 

In Lake Michigan, 126 of 511 tributaries have historic records of sea lamprey production. Of those 83 tributaries have been treated with chemicals, according to the Fish and Wildlife Commission. A major focus of treatment took place on the Oconto River in northeastern Wisconsin, where about 60 miles of the river were treated.”