Geology topics

Scott M. Miehls

Publications and source records attributed to Scott M. Miehls.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2025

Electric field-induced detachment and vibration analysis for Sea Lamprey

Objective: Sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus , a known ecological threat to native fish populations in the Great Lakes, use their oral suction disc to navigate challenging environments when moving upstream to spawn. This study investigated the physiological response of adult sea lamprey to detach under pulsed direct current electric fields. Methods: Adult sea lampreys in an attaching position were exposed to pulsed direct current electric fields at four different field strengths (0.7, 1.1, 1.3, and 1.9 V/cm). Behavioral responses, including detachment and vibration, were observed and analyzed. Fast Fourier Transform analysis was applied to vibration data to quantify the frequency of vibration exhibited by non-detached sea lamprey. Statistical correlations between detachment rates and vibration responses to sea lamprey sex, weight, and length were evaluated to determine influencing factors. Results: The highest detachment rate (91%) was observed at 1.1 V/cm, with the detachment rate above 70% for other field strengths. Fast Fourier Transform analysis revealed that the vibration frequencies closely matched the signal while stronger fields elicited a more pronounced vibration amplitude without significantly increasing detachment. Non-detached sea lampreys exhibited “twitching” behavior synchronized with the electric field frequency. Sex, weight, and length had minimal influence on detachment rates and vibration responses. Conclusion: This study provided insights into the behavioral responses of sea lamprey under electric fields, highlighting the potential for optimizing electric deterrents for selective control. While not all sea lampreys detach during electroshocking, understanding their behavior can be crucial in maximizing detachment rates and contributing to improved management strategies for this invasive species.

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society↗

USGS2025

Field and laboratory evaluations of visible light as a cue for guiding downstream-migrating juvenile Sea Lamprey

Objective We evaluated white light as a potential guidance cue for juvenile Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus in a natural setting as well as the effect of water velocity (0.25-, 0.50-, 0.75-, and 1.0-m/s test velocities) on light guidance behavior in a controlled laboratory flume, and characterized emigration timing and movement rates in a small stream (∼10 m wide and 0.7 m deep). Methods Behaviors and rates of downstream movement were monitored using PIT telemetry in both studies. Results In the field study, downstream movement by juveniles released during October 30–November 27 appeared to be cued by precipitation-induced flow events when water temperatures ranged between 4°C and 8°C. Juveniles expressed lateral attraction to a short, bank-mounted linear light array, but the guidance effect was not strong or consistent between bank light locations. Downstream movement rates decreased slightly when juveniles were exposed to the light cue. In the laboratory flume experiment, at water velocities of 0.25 and 0.75 m/s, lamprey were 2.8 and 3.3 times more likely to be detected at antennas along a wall with a linear light array compared with other antennas across the width of the flume. Significant changes in distribution were detected farther upstream in the flume during 0.25- and 0.50-m/s water velocity trials compared with 0.75-m/s trials. Further, the rate of downstream movement through the length of the flume decreased under artificial lighting compared with dark controls under the 0.25- and 0.75-m/s velocity conditions. Conclusions The results suggest lamprey exhibit a behavioral response to the light cue in both lab and field, but water velocity influences how effectively juveniles can respond to light cues.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2025

A real-time fish detection system for partially dewatered fish to support selective fish passage

Recent advances in fish transportation technologies and deep machine learning-based fish classification have created an opportunity for real-time, autonomous fish sorting through a selective passage mechanism. This research presents a case study of a novel application that utilizes deep machine learning to detect partially dewatered fish exiting an Archimedes Screw Fish Lift (ASFL). A MobileNet SSD model was trained on images of partially dewatered fish volitionally passing through an ASFL. Then, this model was integrated with a network video recorder to monitor video from the ASFL. Additional models were also trained using images from a similar fish scanning device to test the feasibility of this approach for fish classification. Open source software and edge computing design principles were employed to ensure that the system is capable of fast data processing. The findings from this research demonstrate that such a system integrated with an ASFL can support real-time fish detection. This research contributes to the goal of automated data collection in a selective fish passage system and presents a viable path towards realizing optical fish sorting.

Michigan↗

USGS2024

Effects of trap funnel and finger design on Sea Lamprey entrance and retention

Traps are used to catch adult sea lampreys during their upstream migration to estimate their abundance in streams and, in turn, provide a measure of the Sea Lamprey Control Program’s effectiveness. During 2015 and 2016, we experimentally compared two components of sea lamprey trap design: trap entrance funnel type and the presence of retention devices, using side-by-side instream test chambers as well as laboratory flumes. We modeled how likelihoods of entrance and retention were influenced by funnel type, retention fingers, water temperature, and lamprey sex. Likelihood of entrance was highest with bottom-oriented funnels and no retention fingers. As water temperature increased, the likelihood of entrance generally increased, but funnel type and retention fingers determined the magnitude of the increase. Likelihood of retention was highest with bottom-oriented funnels and retention fingers and was also influenced by water temperature. Overall, the likelihood of capture (result of entrance + retention) was highest for bottom-oriented funnels and varied by water temperature and lamprey sex but not retention fingers. Further testing on other components of trap design is needed. This type of controlled experimental design can help guide future work to improve trap exploitation rates.

Water↗

USGS2024

Developing a predictive model to identify Sea Lamprey parasitism on Lake Trout using biologgers

Objective Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus remain problematic for Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush restoration in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Fisheries assessments would benefit from knowledge of spatial–temporal patterns of Sea Lamprey parasitism on Lake Trout; however, such patterns are challenging to estimate from wounding rates on caught Lake Trout. Electronic tags have been used to identify distinct fish behaviors (e.g., foraging or spawning) using measurements of acceleration or heart rate. We hypothesized that Sea Lamprey attachment would elicit changes in the heart rate and swimming behavior of Lake Trout. Here, we determined whether tagging devices could record these changes and whether we could accurately predict lamprey attachment on Lake Trout using these recordings. Methods Adult Lake Trout (n = 34) were implanted with acceleration and heart rate tags and then were subjected to Sea Lamprey parasitism within a laboratory setting. Approximately 70 different acceleration and heart rate metrics were collected and tried as predictors of lamprey attachment. The top variables were used to train random forest models and then tried on test data sets. The accuracy of these models was then validated using a jackknife approach. Result Metrics related to body orientation and heart rate were identified as the best predictors of Sea Lamprey attachment. The best models predicted lamprey attachments with high accuracy; however, individual‐level jackknife tests resulted in less accurate cross‐individual prediction and regularly predicted false negatives. These findings may be related to individual variance in the Lake Trout response to attachment, but there was evidence that the shifting of tags after implantation impacted predictive performance, which could be remedied with adjustments during implantation. Conclusions Our study highlights the potential to use tagging devices for quantifying Sea Lamprey attachments on Lake Trout in the wild. Further development appears necessary; however, once improved, these predictive models have the potential to generate field‐based estimates of Sea Lamprey attack rates on Lake Trout.

Transactions of American Fisheries Society↗

USGS2024

Real-time invasive sea lamprey detection using machine learning classifier models on embedded systems

Invasive sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) has historically inflicted considerable economic and ecological damage in the Great Lakes and continues to be a major threat. Accurately monitoring sea lampreys are critical to enabling the deployment of more targeted and effective control measures to minimize the impact associated with this species. This paper presents the first stand-alone system for real-time detection of sea lamprey attachment on underwater surfaces through the use of classifier models deployed on a microcontroller system. A range of low-complexity models was explored: single-layer artificial neural networks, logistic regression, Gaussian Naive-Bayes, decision trees, random forest, and Scalable, Efficient, and Fast classifieR (SEFR). Threshold models tuned using a multi-objective optimization formulation were also considered. Classifier models were trained with a dataset generated through live animal testing and presented accuracies between 80 and 86%. The models were deployed on an Arduino microcontroller platform and compared in classification accuracy, detection performance, time complexity, and memory size using real-time detection testing. Classification accuracies between 65 and 75% were observed during validation. Models demonstrated good capture rates for lamprey attachments (63–85%), and average detection delays ranging from 9 to 36 s. A video demonstrating the operation of the system during a real-time validation test is also included in this work. While there is room for improving the accuracy of the system, this research presents the first step toward an electronic sea lamprey monitoring system that can provide a detailed view of sea lamprey activity enhancing control and conservation efforts across its entire range.

Neural Computing and Applications↗

USGS2023

Automated soft pressure sensor array-based sea lamprey detection using machine learning

Sea lamprey, a destructive invasive species in the Great Lakes in North America, is among very few fishes that rely on oral suction during migration and spawning. Recently, soft pressure sensors have been proposed to detect the attachment of sea lamprey as part of the monitoring and control effort. However, human decision is still required for the recognition of patterns in the measured signals. In this article, a novel automated soft pressure sensor array-based sea lamprey detection framework is proposed using object detection convolutional neural networks. First, the resistance measurements of the pressure sensor array are converted to mappings of relative change in resistance. These mappings typically show two different types of patterns under lamprey attachment: a high-pressure circular pattern corresponding to the mouth rim compressed against the sensor (“compression” pattern), and a low-pressure blob corresponding to the partial vacuum region of the sucking mouth (“suction” pattern). Three types of object detection algorithms, single-shot detector (SSD), RetinaNet, and YOLOv5s, are applied to the dataset of measurements collected in the presence of sea lamprey attachment, and the comparison of their performance shows that YOLOv5s model achieves the highest mean average precision (mAP) and the fastest inference speed. Furthermore, to improve the accuracy of the prediction model and reduce the false positive (FP) rate due to the sensor’s memory effect, a filter branch with different detection thresholds for the compression and suction patterns, respectively, is added to the original machine-learning algorithm. The trained model is validated and used to automatically detect sea lamprey attachments and locate the suction area on the sensor in real time.

IEEE Sensors Journal↗

USGS2023

Survival, healing, and swim performance of juvenile migratory sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) implanted with a new acoustic microtransmitter designed for small eel-like fishes

Background Little is known about the transformer stage of the parasitic lampreys, a brief but critical period that encompasses juvenile out-migration from rivers to lakes or oceans to begin parasitic feeding. Information about this life stage could have significant conservation implications for both imperiled and invasive lampreys. We investigated tag retention, survival, wound healing, and swim performance of newly transformed sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) implanted with a new micro-acoustic transmitter, the eel–lamprey acoustic transmitter (ELAT), in a controlled laboratory environment. Results The 61-day survival of our tagged subjects was 71%, within the range reported in similar studies of juvenile lampreys. However, survival was significantly lower in the tagged animals (vs control), with no effect statistically attributable to measures of animal length, mass, condition, or population of origin (Great Lakes vs. Atlantic drainage). Mortality in tagged fish was concentrated in the first four days post-surgery, suggesting injury from the surgical process. An unusually long recovery time from anesthesia may have contributed to the increased mortality. In a simple burst swim assay, tagged animals swam significantly slower (− 22.5%) than untagged animals, but were not significantly different in endurance swim tests. A composite wound healing score at day four was a significant predictor of maximum burst swim speed at day 20, and wound condition was related to animal mass, but not length, at the time of tagging. Conclusions Impairments to survival and swim performance of juvenile sea lamprey implanted with the ELAT transmitter were within currently reported ranges for telemetry studies with small, difficult to observe fishes. Our results could be improved with more refined anesthesia and surgical techniques. The ability to track migratory movements of imperiled and pest populations of parasitic lampreys will improve our ability to estimate vital rates that underlie recruitment to the adult population (growth, survival) and to investigate the environmental factors that regulate the timing and rates of movement, in wild populations.

Atlantic Ocean, Connecticut River, Laurentian Grea↗

USGS2022

Test of a screw-style fish lift for introducing migratory fish into a selective fish passage device

Barriers are an effective mechanism for managing invasive species like sea lamprey in the Lau-rentian Great Lakes, but are detrimental because they limit the migration of desirable, native species. Fish passage technologies that selectively pass desirable species while blocking unde-sirable species are needed. Optical sorting tools combined with newly developed computer learning algorithms could be used to identify invasive species from high resolution imagery and potentially isolate them from an assortment of Great Lakes fishes. Many existing barriers lack fishways and optical sorting may require fish to be dewatered for image capture. The Archimedes screw, a device originating from 234 BC, offers the potential to continuously lift fish and water over low-head barriers or into an optical sorting device. To test the efficacy of an Archimedes screw fish lift to capture and pass Great Lakes fishes, we built a field-scale prototype and installed it at the Cheboygan Dam, Michigan USA in 2021. The fish lift safely transported 704 fish (688 of which were suckers) in 11 days. Passage of suckers through the fish lift increased with water temperature and attraction flow. There were no observed injuries in transported fish or mortalities in a subset of suckers held post-transport.

Michigan↗

USGS2021

Where you trap matters: Implications for integrated sea lamprey management

Barriers and pesticides have been used in streams to control sea lamprey in the Laurentian Great Lakes for nearly 70 years. Considerable effort has been spent to develop additional control measures, but much less effort has gone toward identifying how or where additional control measures might be cost-effectively integrated into the sea lamprey control program. We use a management strategy evaluation model in Lake Michigan to identify the stream types that would be most suitable for deploying traps to remove adults prior to spawning and estimate the likely impact on adult sea lamprey abundance in subsequent years under several trapping scenarios relative to status quo abundance. The greatest reduction in lake-wide adult sea lamprey abundance predicted by the model resulted when removing adult sea lampreys from streams that are difficult for control program personnel to treat with lampricide because lampricide applications would be required less frequently. Additionally, targeting streams which experience regular sea lamprey recruitment and streams with low adult sea lamprey density should result in reduced lake-wide abundance if trapping costs are relatively low or removal is high. Our results provide direction on where to trap and why, and indicate that trapping may be a valuable part of an integrated sea lamprey control approach advancing the goals of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Journal of Great Lakes Research↗

USGS2021

Before the first meal: The elusive pre-feeding juvenile stage of the sea lamprey

Although sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) in the Laurentian Great Lakes have been studied intensively for more than 70 years, many questions remain about their complex life cycle. One of the least understood portions is the post-metamorphic stage (hereafter pre-feeding juvenile, PFJ) that occurs prior to parasitic feeding. PFJ must emerge from stream sediments and migrate downstream into nearshore feeding areas. Key uncertainties include the internal and exogenous triggers that regulate the timing and duration of the migration, and the mechanisms the animal uses to navigate, avoid predators, and locate their first host. However, many of these factors may vary predictably among natal streams in response to stable geomorphological and hydraulic characteristics that regulate the timing of movements (e.g., flood phenology), energetic costs (e.g., stream length), and risk (e.g., predator density). An improved understanding of the PFJ stage presents two opportunities to improve the success of sea lamprey control: (1) identification of streams where natural mortality during the PFJ stage is high, allowing for the reallocation of larval control to streams more likely to produce successful parasites, and (2) removal or killing of PFJs in streams where natural mortality is low. Either approach represents an opportunity to limit parasitic damage to valuable fish stocks. Here, we review the state of knowledge of the PFJ stage and identify critical knowledge gaps that, if addressed, could facilitate sea lamprey assessment and control by exploiting the behavior of PFJ as they outmigrate from streams in search of their first meal.

Journal of Great Lakes Research↗

USGS2021

Understanding sea lamprey populations in the Great Lakes prior to broad implementation of sea lamprey control

Control of invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes with a selective pesticide (lampricide) that targeted larval sea lamprey began in the late 1950's and continues to be one of the main methods for control. Although the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which was formed with the mandate of controlling sea lamprey, often expresses the success of the sea lamprey control program in terms of percent reduction from lake-wide pre-lampricide control adult sea lamprey abundances, there remains a large amount of uncertainty surrounding these estimates. In this study, we gathered historical data on adult sea lamprey captures from trapping efforts from the mid-1950's through the late 1970's to better understand pre-control abundance. We used this information to estimate lake-wide population abundances of adult sea lamprey using a weighted linear regression that includes environmental and lampricide treatment predictor variables. We varied trapping efficiency for early trapping data to evaluate the uncertainty in abundance estimates. Pre-control adult sea lamprey abundances in all lakes were much greater than current population sizes, but estimates were quite sensitive to trapping efficiency. In Lake Superior, declines in abundance aligned with increases in control efforts, but in other lakes, declines were occurring prior to the onset of lampricide application, perhaps because of a loss of prey. We suggest that previous estimates of pre-control adult sea lamprey abundance may have been underestimated unless trapping efficiency was greater than what is currently achieved in the basin.

Great Lakes↗

USGS2021

Behavioral responses of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) and white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) to turbulent flow during fishway passage attempts

An understanding of how undesirable and desirable fish species respond behaviorally to turbulent flow in fishways would guide development of selective fish passage techniques. We applied high-resolution computational fluid dynamics modeling and competing risks analysis towards the development of predictive selective passage models. Sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ; an invasive fish in the Great Lakes Basin, North America) upstream passage probability declined from 0.73 to 0.03 as flow conditions became increasingly turbulent, while declines in white sucker ( Catostomus commersonii , a native fish in the region) upstream passage probability were less substantial (0.53 to 0.44). Deploying a sea lamprey trap in the fishway did not effectively reduce sea lamprey upstream passage probability, though capture rate increased during trials with cooler water temperature and low total kinetic energy. Bifurcated fishways that maintain low turbulent flow in the entrapment route and high turbulent flow in the upstream passage route could increase the effectiveness of trapping sea lamprey in fishways as a means to advance selective passage goals.

Wisconsin↗

USGS2021

Behavioural response of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) to acoustic stimuli in a small stream

Sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) are invasive in the Laurentian Great Lakes and parasitically feed on valued fishes. Migration barriers and selective pesticides are used to control sea lamprey, but there is a desire to develop additional control tools such as traps with nonphysical deterrents. Sound has been used as a deterrent for other invasive species, but its potential for manipulating sea lamprey behavior in natural stream conditions remains untested. Here, behavioral responses of upstream-migrating adult sea lamprey in response to low frequency sounds of 70 or 90 Hz was tracked in a small stream (8 m wide) using passive integrated transponder (PIT) telemetry. The low frequency sounds shifted sea lamprey distribution, with up to 30% more sea lamprey detected on PIT antennas without sound compared with PIT antennas with sound playing. Future studies could continue testing low frequency sounds in larger rivers with larger speakers for use as a natural deterrent at sea lamprey barriers to push sea lamprey toward traps.

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences↗

USGS2020

Advancements towards selective barrier passage by automatic species identification: Applications of deep convolutional neural networks on images of dewatered fish

Invasive species negatively affect enterprises such as fisheries, agriculture, and international trade. In the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin, threats include invasive sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) and the four major Chinese carps. Barriers have proven to be an effective mechanism for managing invasive species but are detrimental in that they also limit the migration of desirable, native species. Fish passage technologies that selectively pass desirable species while blocking undesirable species are needed. Key to an automated selective barrier passage system is a high precision fish classifier to assign fish to be passed or blocked. Presented is an evaluation of two classifiers developed using images of partially dewatered fish captured from a commercial, high-speed camera array. For a lamprey vs. non-lamprey classification task, an ensemble prediction approach achieved near perfect accuracy on both a validation and test dataset. For a species classification task for 13 species found in the Great Lakes region, an ensemble prediction approach achieved accuracies of 96% and 97% on a validation and test dataset, respectively. Both prediction approaches were based on deep convolutional neural networks constructed using transfer learning and image augmentation. The study provides an important proof-of-concept for the viability in fully automated, selective fish passage systems.

Illinois, Michigan,Ohio↗

USGS2020

Evaluation of visible light as a cue for guiding downstream migrant juvenile Sea Lamprey

Light can modify orientation and locomotory behaviors in fish and has been applied to attract or repel migrant fish by inducing positive or negative phototaxis. Here, recently metamorphosed downstream‐migrating Sea Lamprey Petromyzon marinus were exposed to light cues in several orientations and intensities at night under controlled flowing‐water conditions in a laboratory flume. Behaviors and rates of downstream movement were monitored with overhead cameras and nets. When exposed to low‐intensity white light, 16–23% more Sea Lamprey were captured in a net closest to the light cue array compared to a dark control condition, suggesting some degree of positive phototaxis at low light levels (100 lx at a distance of 1 m from the light source). An interaction with the side of the flume (possibly due to varying flow conditions) and light treatment was also observed. At higher light intensities (1,000 lx at 1 m from the source), Sea Lamprey progressed downstream at a lower rate than was observed during dark conditions. After high‐intensity light treatments, fewer Sea Lamprey were observed in the nets at the downstream end of the flume and more Sea Lamprey were observed in the flume or in the release channel compared to dark control trials. Therefore, some photonegative behavior may be expressed at light levels of 1,000 lx or greater, perhaps as an attempt to avoid detection by predators by remaining stationary or seeking shelter. Light may have utility as a cue used for guidance devices to control Sea Lamprey, but further research is needed to define how light intensity and the environment (turbidity, depth, water velocity, and natural habitat features) influence locomotion, changes in swimming depth, and other behavioral responses of downstream‐migrating juvenile Sea Lamprey.

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society↗

USGS2020

Applications of deep convolutional neural networks to predict length, circumference, and weight from mostly dewatered images of fish

Simple biometric data of fish aid fishery management tasks such as monitoring the structure of fish populations and regulating recreational harvest. While these data are foundational to fishery research and management, the collection of length and weight data through physical handling of the fish is challenging as it is time consuming for personnel and can be stressful for the fish. Recent advances in imaging technology and machine learning now offer alternatives for capturing biometric data. To investigate the potential of deep convolutional neural networks to predict biometric data, several regressors were trained and evaluated on data stemming from the FishL™ Recognition System and manual measurements of length, girth, and weight. The dataset consisted of 694 fish from 22 different species common to Laurentian Great Lakes. Even with such a diverse dataset and variety of presentations by the fish, the regressors proved to be robust and achieved competitive mean percent errors in the range of 5.5 to 7.6% for length and girth on an evaluation dataset. Potential applications of this work could increase the efficiency and accuracy of routine survey work by fishery professionals and provide a means for longer‐term automated collection of fish biometric data.

Illinois, Michigan, Ohio↗

USGS2020

Adult sea lamprey respond to induced turbulence in a low current system

Manipulation of water velocities and turbulence using pumps, propellers, or jets is a promising alternative to physical water control structures to guide fish towards traps or fishways. Sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) are a species of concern in much of their native and invasive ranges, and their improved guidance could benefit management actions for both conservation and control. The flow velocity enhancement system (FVES), an emergent technology that uses a Venturi pump to generate a plume of turbulence, has shown promise guiding downstream migrating fish in slow-moving or static water conditions formed by large reservoirs, but is untested for guidance of upstream swimming fish in low current environments. The FVES had minimal impact on depth averaged velocity profiles, but produced elevated levels of turbulence. Changes in spatial distribution and number of turns suggest sea lamprey detect and are mildly attracted to turbulence induced by the FVES. These results demonstrate the potential of induced turbulence as a guidance mechanism for upstream migrating sea lamprey, but more extensive testing is needed to show the full utility of this approach.

Michigan↗