Out of the Lab, Into the Field

Great Lakes Fishery Commission Just in from the Hammond Bay Biological Station on Lake Huron, Jared Fine heads to his St. Paul laboratory to perform bioassays on sea lampreys. He's looking for chemicals that may be sexually alluring to this parasitic fish. Electro-olfactograms (EOGs), which Fine uses to track the lamprey's responses to odors, "require a pretty elaborate setup," says the fisheries graduate student from the University of Minnesota. It's easier and cheaper for his advisor, Peter Sorensen, to fly Fine and his fish to a laboratory in St. Paul for a week than to set up the assays at the station. The Hammond Bay Biological Station (HBBS) is a converted US Coast Guard Station that Sorensen's group uses to study chemical communication among the migratory lamprey, a parasite that has decimated Great Lakes fisheries. Behavioral tests indicate that some compounds isolated from the lake and its feeders are pheromones. Fishery managers hope to use the pheromones to lure and trap the lampreys. Females can each carry 100,000 eggs, a few thousand of which may hatch. The females will be killed; male lampreys will be sterilized and released. LIFE AND LAB TESTS Fine, two other graduate students, and a technician work at HBBS during the two-month spawning season. One of the graduate students has been coming to the lake since he was an undergraduate; he uses radio telemetry to track fish released after being exposed to different cues. The rest of the year the group works in the confines of Sorensen's laboratory at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul. Lab work is important, says Sorensen, professor of fisheries, wildlife, and conservation, but "when we have things narrowed down, then we go out to the real world and test it." "I always look for a set up, some station to work out of," says Sorensen. The HBBS, now operated by the US Geological Survey (USGS), provides some basic equipment such as holding tanks and 30 meter-long raceways, as well as some onsite assistance. Both the USGS' lamprey research and Sorensen's lamprey work are funded by the same agency, the binational Great Lakes Fishery Commission, so Sorensen does not need to pay for use of the facilities. Researchers from all over are attracted to Hammond Bay, which Sorensen calls the "sea lamprey capital of the world." Many researchers come to obtain large quantities of the eel-like creatures at a particular stage of their life cycle. Others, such as Sorensen's group, also need large quantities of the water in which the fish spawn, as well as the large raceways and other facilities at HBBS. And for those suffering from lab fever, the rural setting and incredible lake view from the unassuming station (more like a large house with some outbuildings than like a government lab) offers an added bonus. Courtesy of Jared Fine LOOKING FOR LAMPREY LOOKING FOR LOVE: Grad student Lance Vrieze tracks fish using acoustic telemetry. The Minnesota researchers stay in a two-bedroom cabin on a small lake nearby, paid for by Sorensen's grant, which also picks up the tab for their food, stipends, and travel expenses. Their timing is perfect: The cabin is the owner's summer residence, and he likes to be up there for the July 4th holiday, which is just after the lampreys finish their spring run. The researchers begin their day at around 11:00 in the morning and often don't get back to the cabin until 3:00 the following morning. The lamprey is nocturnal, so most experiments are performed in complete darkness, under infrared light, and are recorded by a digital video camera. During the day, the team analyzes the previous night's videos and designs the next set of experiments. They also fill barrels with lake or stream water for testing. Fine enjoys the change of pace from traditional lab work, and the freedom and beauty of the natural setting is a particular draw. Why, then, couldn't Fine remain at the HBBS until the fish have almost finished their migration, rather than taking them back to the lab in St. Paul during the spawning season? Because as the migratory period winds down, "They can't smell a thing," Fine says. All their energy has gone into spawning, and the olfactory system has degraded. The fishes' olfactory system, that is, not the researchers'. Josh P. Roberts (tcwriter@msn.com) is a freelance science and travel writer in Minneapolis, Minn. function sendData() { document.frm.pathName.value = location.pathname; result = false if (document.frm.score[0].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[1].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[2].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[3].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[4].checked) result = true; if (!result) alert("Please select") return result; } .myradio{background-color : #94bee5} Please indicate on a 1 - 5 scale how strongly you would recommend this article to your colleagues? Not recommended 1 2 3 4 5 Highly recommended Please register your vote

Out of the Lab, Into the Field

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