Caudata.org: Newts and Salamanders Portal

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Did you know that registered users see fewer ads? Register today!

VT Press x2: Pesticide kills Lamoille River mudpuppies

wes_von_papineäu

Our Roving Correspondent
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
494
Reaction score
10
Location
Vancouver, British Columbia
TIMES-ARGUS (Barre, Vermont) 09 October 09 Lampricide kills salamanders in river - By some estimates, as many as 512 mudpuppies died after lampricide treatment in the Lamoille River. (Louis Porter)
Montpelier: When the state treated the Lamoille River with a chemical to kill sea lamprey last week, a large number of mudpuppies, a prehistoric-looking creature that is the second rarest salamander in Vermont, were killed as well.
Final numbers are not in, but by some estimates as many as 512 mudpuppies died after the Lamoille treatment. Only two dozen mudpuppies have been killed by previous lampricide treatments in Vermont, which are meant to kill parasitic lamprey that harm or kill fish in Lake Champlain.
The reclusive mudpuppies, which can grow to be 14 inches long and have a branching network of external gills extending from their throats, are a species of special concern and of greatest conservation need in Vermont, meaning they are rare and biologists carefully watch their status. They are not legally protected or have threatened or endangered species status, although in the past some have suggested they should be given protection in the state.
The numbers killed are higher than he is comfortable with, said Jim Andrews, an adjunct professor at the University of Vermont and the coordinator of the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. The response by the state to such a die-off of mudpuppies would likely be quite different if a private company, rather than the government, had caused it, Andrews said.
"The assumption is that there is no real cost involved" in the lampricide treatment, Andrews said. "There is a cost."
But there is also a cost in not using the chemical and other means of lowering sea lamprey populations, said Vermont Fish and Game Commissioner Wayne Laroche.
A variety of fish species are harmed or killed by lamprey. Some, like lake trout, are valuable game fish while others — the Lake Sturgeon, for instance — are endangered, Laroche said.
Laroche said the treatment to control lampreys is not just about the economic benefit of sport fishing to Vermont but about maintaining a balance of all species — including sea lamprey which although native to the Lake Champlain basin, have dramatically increased in number as more silt has provided more spawning grounds.
"Lake sturgeon are endangered, they have been devastated," Laroche said. "Sea lamprey, if left unchecked, could cause extinction of the natural genetic population left in Lake Champlain."
Lampricide is applied to rivers in the Lake Champlain basin by Vermont Fish and Wildlife Dept. in partnership with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
According to a recent statement from the Vermont department "under the sea lamprey control program, TFM (3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol) is applied in precise concentrations to the streams in a continuous, metered manner over a 12-hour period in order to kill the immature, larval form of the sea lamprey.
The application, according to that statement, should have "little or no effects on populations of other aquatic species."
But the number of mudpuppies killed in the Lamoille during the lampricide treatment a week ago raises questions about how well biologists understand the population of the salamander, the effect of the chemical used to control lamprey and the potential that other stresses can put the creatures at risk during such treatments, Andrews said.
"These are complex systems we are tinkering with," he said.
"It is a large number," Laroche said of the mudpuppies killed. But, he added, "I am not alarmed."
The large number of mudpuppies killed might mean that the Lamoille — which has never been treated with lampricide before — has a very high population of the mottled brown salamanders, he said.
"We could have an abundance of mudpuppies and just have a situation where it is difficult to find them and catch them," Laroche said.
Laroche said as the data and research on the most recent treatment with lampricide comes in it will be evaluated objectively and thoroughly.
"If we find out something went wrong on this treatment we are going to make sure it doesn't happen again," Laroche said.
But — in part because of the effect on the sport fishery — lamprey control is a very political issue, one that scientists in the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department can be afraid to speak out about, said Andrews.
Mudpuppies are not the only species besides sea lamprey killed by past lampricide applications. Other kinds of lamprey that do not pose the same risk to fish, including the endangered brook lamprey, have also been killed, although apparently not in the most recent application.
"It doesn't distinguish between sea lamprey and the other species," said Andrews.
But Laroche said the department does what it can to avoid killing those other lamprey species.
"We are doing everything we can to minimize the impact on brook lamprey," Laroche said.
Lampricide kills salamanders in river: Times Argus Online

BURLINGTON FREE PRESS (Vermont) 09 October 09 Pesticide kills Lamoille River mudpuppies (Tim Johnson)
The treatment was applied Oct. 1 at the Peterson Dam in Milton. A survey downstream over the next two days found, in addition to dead lampreys, hundreds of dead mudpuppies, said Bradley Young, a fish biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Young did not have numbers; he said small numbers of several other species also were found.
Jim Andrews, a herpetologist and chairman of the state's Reptile and Amphibian Scientific Advisory Group, said he'd been told the preliminary figure for dead mudpuppies was 512. He said the largest mudpuppy die-off in previous Vermont lamprey treatments on other streams was below 30, and the largest die-off on the New York side, in the Ausable River, was fewer than 200.
"We know this is a significant hit," Andrews said. Because a post-treatment survey typically covers just part of the river, roughly 10 percent or 20 percent, the actual die-off is likely to be larger, he said.
However, the size of the pre-treatment mudpuppy population in the Lamoille is unknown, so it's unclear how large a fraction might have died. Young said efforts are under way to determine how large the remaining population is.
Calls Thursday afternoon to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, the lead agency in the treatment and survey, were not immediately returned.
This was the first treatment on the Lamoille, where a large population of lampreys was found this year, and the only treatment of the year for Lake Champlain's tributaries in Vermont. The lamprey is a parasitic eel-like fish that reproduces in rivers, then makes its way into the lake, where it attaches to prey, sucks blood, and damages game fish populations.
A pesticide has been used in about a dozen Vermont and New York streams feeding the lake since 2002, with the aim of killing lamprey larvae. According to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the pesticide -- 3-trifluoromethyl-4-notrophenol, known as TFM -- is applied in precise concentrations in a metered manner over a 12-hour period. The agency says the treatments have helped restore fish populations in the lake and that wounding rates have diminished.
In a news release last month announcing the Lamoille application, the agency said the treatment has "little or no effects on populations of other aquatic species."
Conservationists have opposed the lamprey treatment, contending that effects on other species are not fully known. In the Lamoille, softshell turtles and freshwater mussels also were species of concern, said Mollie Matteson of the Center for Biological Diversity in Richmond.
Andrews said the mudpuppy, a form of salamander that retains its gills and remains aquatic after it outgrows the larval phase, can grow to be 16 inches long, with a lifespan of 10 to 20 years. It is not an endangered species, but is considered a "high priority conservation species." On a five-point scale, with "1" the rarest and "5" most common, the mudpuppy is classified as a "2."
A proposal several years ago that the mudpuppy be given protected status was rejected by state officials, in part because this could prevent lamprey control, because the salamander could be killed by lampricides. The mudpuppy's range is the same as that for lamprey, Andrews said -- from the lake to the first big obstacle in the river, which in the Lamoille's case was the Peterson Dam. The dead lampreys and mudpuppies were found along the full length of the river from the dam to the lake, Young said.
Lamprey control has been a state priority, urged by commercial fishing derby organizers and sport fishermen, who opposed putting the mudpuppy on the state's endangered list. They have prevailed, Andrews said, over the relatively few who "speak up for nongame species."
The advisory group Andrews chairs recommended this summer to the Vermont Endangered Species Committee that a lampricide treatment permit for the Lamoille be denied. The group's June 24 memo cited concerns about spiny softshell turtles, and then said:
"We also continue to be very concerned about the potential impacts of lampricides on Vermont's population of Mudpuppies."
Pesticide kills Lamoille River mudpuppies | burlingtonfreepress.com | The Burlington Free Press
 

SludgeMunkey

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,299
Reaction score
79
Location
Bellevue, Nebraska
Here is a fine example of poor research on the part of those that chose that particular chemical.

It is also a fine example of the oft used defense "..it is safe for fish so it must be safe for caudates..." and the fallacy of such a statement.
 

Ralf

New member
Joined
Nov 24, 2002
Messages
800
Reaction score
8
AW: VT Press x2: Pesticide kills Lamoille River mudpuppies

Quite bold to give an estimate of 512 killed individuals. Why not 511 or 513? The number of dead individuals found (and counted) in any river after a fish kill is only a fraction of the actual loss.
 
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    There are no messages in the chat. Be the first one to say Hi!
    Top