An adaptive management implementation framework for evaluating supplemental sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) controls in the Laurentian Great Lakes

Abstract

Invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) populations in the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin have been suppressed for over 60 years primarily by migration barriers and lamprey-specific pesticides. Improving control outcomes by supplementing barriers and pesticides with additional control strategies has been a long-standing objective of managers and stakeholders, but progress towards this objective has been limited. We developed an adaptive management implementation framework and applied it to this objective. The framework consists of a set of adaptive management implementation goals (develop effective monitoring practices, develop effective participatory process, and conduct management experiments), a set of aspirational targets hypothesized to be related to Sea Lamprey Control Program adaptive capacity (multi-level political and social organization, creation of safe-to-fail decision making arenas, and effective use of multi-criteria decision analysis), and a feedback loop linking adaptive capacity and progress towards adaptive management implementation goals. Progress towards improving sea lamprey control outcomes by integrating supplemental control strategy into the Sea Lamprey Control Program may be possible through adaptive management implementation.