SBIR Phase I: Adapting uncrewed aquaculture management to control sea lamprey and to protect wild salmonid fisheries of the Great Lakes

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on improved methods for detecting and suppressing sea lampreys in the Great Lakes, a pest species that currently requires relentless, sustained, and costly control efforts at ecosystem scale. The project initiates the development of small, relocatable, field-deployed devices, capable of performing a range of assessment and selective control functions. Success in this effort will introduce an important new tool to bolster environmental health outcomes at an ecosystem level, and benefit commercial fisheries estimated at $7B annually. By replacing chemical and manual control of exotic invaders, the project contributes to the preservation of ecosystem integrity and function, biodiversity, and environmental quality of the Great Lakes, a vital natural resource providing water security for more than 35 million people in the region. With worldwide damage from aquatic invaders exceeding $300 billion annually, innovations driving advances in ecosystem protection and restoration will have wide appeal and application wherever habitats require protection. Broadening the available tool set empowers managers and local communities to act against exotic invaders at the level where causes and consequences are most acutely felt.This project performs a feasibility study of existing technologies from aquaculture workflows for adaptation to the uncrewed control of sea lampreys in the field. The essential features of such a device are inherently similar to recently emerged solutions for automated fish management in robotic aquaculture systems. Existing models for detection and classification are expected to transfer well to a class as morphologically distinct as lampreys. The primary challenges to this project most likely arise from the unique biology and sensory ecology of a species whose responses to the physical device used here are completely unknown. A set of artificial stream experiments aims to entrain lampreys into devices placed into their path. How might lamprey react to a device optimized for the specific needs of imaging, classification, and selective removal? Informed by detailed knowledge of lamprey chemosensory ecology, the work also examines the efficacy of pheromonal cues for channeling lamprey movement through the device.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.