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In the 1930's sea lamprey made their way into the Great Lakes by means of ships. In the subsequent years, the sea lamprey grew at a tremendous rate. By 1950's fishing in the Great Lakes region was drastically affected and was getting closer to extinction. A major program of using lampricide to control sea lamprey initiated by the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission has had an important impact in reversing the trend. This successful program consisted of application of lampricide to kill sea lamprey during the vulnerable larval stage. Major studies conducted by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission revealed that a certain critical concentration of lampricide needs to be maintained for a specific minimum duration to provide a lethal dose. The St. Marys River is known to harbor large numbers of sea lamprey larvae and is the only such tributary to Lake Huron that is not treated with the lampricide.

A computer model can simulate the lampricide transport, provide critical information needed to plan lampricide treatment by predicting the effectiveness of different possible treatment plans. Mathematical models provide an inexpensive and useful tool for studying the behavior of chemical transport in a river. Many mathematical models have been developed for simulating the transport and fate of toxic chemicals in rivers and. Most of these models are either one-dimensional or simple box-type models, in which the stream or lake is considered as a series of interconnected well-mixed volume segments. In a recent study, a computer model for chemical and oil spills in large river was developed at Clarkson. This integrated chemical/oil spill model, RSPILL, considers chemical transport, transformation and kinetic processes in both river water and bed sediment. The present study improved RSPILL and applied it to study the transport and spreading of the lampricide in the upper St. Marys River.

1. The Upper St. Marys River
2. Bathymetry of the Upper St. Marys River
3. Comparison of Observed and Simulated Concentration Distributions for a Dye Test
4. Dye Study on the St. Marys River
        - Dye Injection
        - Collecting Samples