The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Assistant Regional Director for Fisheries, Gerry Jackson, has named Bob Adair as project leader and regional program manager for sea lamprey control operations of the Services Marquette Biological Station and Ludington Biological Station, both in Michigan.
Adair replaces Gary Klar, who retired last June. His appointment was effective Jan. 21.
“ Bob supervised all Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 Fisheries Program activities in the Great Lakes for many years,” said Jackson, “and he is well positioned to leverage that knowledge into our efforts to raise the profile and understanding of the Sea Lamprey Control Program.”
In addition to supervising the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Great Lakes Fisheries stations, Adair has represented the Service on the Great Lakes Fishery Commission’s Sea Lamprey Integration Committee since 2000 and served as observer to the Council of Lake Committees since 1999.
Adair, who will be stationed in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Regional Office in Fort Snelling, Minn., will be assisted by Deputy Program Manager Kasia Mullett in Marquette, and Deputy Program Manager Denny Lavis in Ludington.
A graduate of Oregon State University, Adair worked for the Service, the former Oregon Wildlife Commission, the Washington Department of Fisheries and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe in the Pacific Northwest for many years, managing fisheries for Pacific herring, Pacific salmon and green sturgeon. He also worked with the Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance and the Peace Corps in establishing fisheries assessment and management programs in the Sangha River in the Central African Republic.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is the U.S. agent for sea lamprey control in a bi-national partnership managed through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, in cooperation with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and researchers from several universities.
Robyn Thorson, Midwest Regional Director for the Service, emphasized that “the Service’s sea lamprey control efforts are critically important to our mission.
“ The appointment of a new Sea Lamprey Control Program project leader is a great opportunity to further enhance our relationships with the Fishery Commission and our many Great Lakes partners,” Thorson said.
Sea lamprey, a primitive and parasitic fish native to the Atlantic Ocean, entered the Great Lakes after 1938 through man-made shipping canals and by 1950 had become a major factor in the devastation of fisheries. The control program uses lampricides, trapping, barriers to spawning migra
