Swimmers at Hanlan’s Point or Cherry Beach might not want to know it, but Toronto’s waterfront is home to snake-like sea lamprey, also called “vampire fish.”
Worse still, these invasive blood-suckers may have an easier time evading extermination efforts this year thanks to aborted cuts by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In February, as part of widespread government staffing reductions helmed by Canadian-American billionaire Elon Musk, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received a directive to terminate staff on probation, implement a hiring freeze and halt any staff travel.
While ostensibly meant to eliminate government bloat, the directive had a “devastating body blow” for a program that keeps sea lamprey at bay in the Great Lakes, said Greg McClinchey, director of policy and legislative affairs with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC).
An invasive species in the Great Lakes, the eel-like creatures attach onto other fish, such as lake trout, whitefish and salmon, to suck their blood, feed on their flesh and ultimately kill them.
Lamprey do not typically bite people.
After finding their way into the Great Lakes about two centuries ago, the creatures decimated fish populations and the commercial fishing industry. This led Canada and the U.S. to create GLFC to collaborate on reducing sea lamprey populations.
The efforts have been hugely successful.
Since the GLFC’s launch, sea lamprey populations have declined by about 90 per cent, restoring commercial and sport fishing across the Great Lakes, according to McClinchey.
But experts say that work was imperilled by February’s cuts.
Each year, the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority catches sea lamprey in traps at the mouth of the Humber River as the fish swim upstream to spawn.
DOGE disrupts lamprey control efforts
For the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the DOGE directive required the immediate termination of 12 sea lamprey population control staff, who were among some of the service’s most experienced, and a halt to the hiring of some 25 seasonal staff.
University of Manitoba professor of biological sciences Margaret Docker called the policy change “devastating” for efforts to control sea lamprey numbers.
In the Great Lakes, the prehistoric fish are tricky to catch and have no natural predators.
To make matters worse, a single female sea lamprey can lay as many as 100,000 eggs per spawning season, allowing the species’ numbers to balloon quickly if adolescent lampreys are allowed to swim back downstream into the Great Lakes.
To reduce this possibility, the GLFC runs an annual program, bolstered by temporary seasonal staff, where a liquid known as lampricide is applied in tributaries where lamprey larvae are found, effectively killing them.
North of the U.S. border, the work is carried out by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. To the south, it’s done by seasonal staff in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Fearing the February U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cuts would lead to reduced fish populations, many Americans contacted their federal representatives to demand a reversal.
In late March, Michigan Republican Congressman Jack Bergman posted to Facebook, saying he’d heard from hundreds of constituents and was “working to get answers.”
While the post may have allayed the worries of some, not all were placated.
“We would be better off with lampreys running the country,” quipped one of Bergman’s constituents in response.
Hiring freeze aborted, but concerns remain
In mid-March, McClinchey said the hiring freeze on seasonal staff was lifted and the 12 probationary staff who had been terminated could be rehired.
Still, he acknowledged the changes aren’t without impact.
While American staffers are working hard to get the lampricide program back on track, it’s now up to six weeks delayed, he said.
McClinchey said staff will try to ensure all tributaries slated for treatment this season will still receive treatment.
“Our hope is that we can regain most of the season,” he said.
However, if that’s not possible, more young sea lamprey could ultimately find their way into the waters in Toronto’s harbour.
Though sea lamprey aren’t great swimmers, some of the fish they attach themselves to are, according to Wilfrid Laurier University biology professor Michael Wilkie.
“A lamprey at one end of Lake Ontario could be at the other end of Lake Ontario within a week or two,” he said.
Put otherwise: “Lamprey don’t carry passports,” said McClinchey.
In addition to the delay in hiring seasonal workers, McClinchey said several of the terminated staff have decided not to return to their posts.
The ban on staff travel also remains in place.
While McClinchey said the GLFC may be able to find a solution, he acknowledged the travel ban may make things more difficult.
“The lamprey won’t come to the office,” he said.
COVID years show how fast lamprey numbers grow
For an illustration of the impact of missing a season or two of lampricide treatment, experts told TorontoToday you need look no further than the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020 and 2021, border closures and social distancing restrictions led the GLFC to reduce lamprey population control measures.
The impact was near-immediate.
“As a consequence of reduced programming … we saw, in some cases, a 300 per cent increase in sea lamprey numbers,” said McClinchey.
Such an increase isn’t just unnerving for squeamish swimmers.
McClinchey said the economic impact of those two years of reduced treatment was about $2 billion, including direct losses to the fishing industry.
A single sea lamprey can kill up to 40 pounds of fish in a 12 to 18 month feeding period. More sea lamprey directly result in far fewer catches for commercial and sport fishers.
“I can’t tell you that in 2025 we’ll see more lamprey in the system,” said McClinchey. “But we do know that if lamprey are left in the system, [it] has pretty immediate and pretty massive economic and ecological implications.”
Incident shows Canada’s ‘reliance’ on U.S.
Michael McKay, director of the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, said he’s relieved by DOGE’s about-face, but said the incident shows Canada’s vulnerability.
“I think it really reinforced how reliant we’ve become on U.S. agencies,” he said.
The environmental studies professor said the Canadian federal government has made some progress in this area in recent years.
In 2024 the government provided millions to the newly created Canada Water Agency, a body focused on keeping the nation’s water safe, clean and well-managed.
Still, McKay said the turbulent staffing of the sea lamprey program shows more should be done.
“It really speaks [to] the need for Canada to up its game in terms of our own efforts and contributions to the Great Lakes,” he said.