All Topics  
Sea lamprey

 
Sea Lamprey

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Sea lamprey
 
 
  Topics Sea lamprey Topic Home

The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a parasitic lamprey
Lamprey

A lamprey is a parasitic marine animal with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to hematophagy, these species make up the minority....
 (a kind of jawless fish) found on the Atlantic coasts of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 and North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, in the western Mediterranean Sea, and in the Great Lakes
Great Lakes

The St. Lawrence River Great Lakes are a chain of fresh water lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada ? United States border. Consisting of Lakes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth....
. It is brown or gray on its back and white or gray on the underside and can grow to be up to 90 cm (35.5 in) long. Sea lampreys prey on a wide variety of fish. The lamprey uses its suction-cup like mouth to attach itself to the skin of a fish and rasps away tissue with its sharp probing tongue and teeth.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Sea lamprey'
Start a new discussion about 'Sea lamprey'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a parasitic lamprey
Lamprey

A lamprey is a parasitic marine animal with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to hematophagy, these species make up the minority....
 (a kind of jawless fish) found on the Atlantic coasts of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 and North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, in the western Mediterranean Sea, and in the Great Lakes
Great Lakes

The St. Lawrence River Great Lakes are a chain of fresh water lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada ? United States border. Consisting of Lakes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth....
. It is brown or gray on its back and white or gray on the underside and can grow to be up to 90 cm (35.5 in) long. Sea lampreys prey on a wide variety of fish. The lamprey uses its suction-cup like mouth to attach itself to the skin of a fish and rasps away tissue with its sharp probing tongue and teeth. Secretions in the lamprey's mouth prevent the victim's blood from clotting. Victims typically die from blood loss or infection.

Life cycle

The life cycle of sea lampreys is anadromous, like that of salmon
Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Atlantic salmon....
.The young are born in inland rivers, live in the ocean as adults, and return to the rivers to breed. Young emerge from the egg as larvae
Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
, blind and toothless, and live that way for 3 to 17 years, buried in mud and filter-feeding. Once they have grown to a certain length, they metamorphosize into their parasitic form, after which they migrate to the sea. After about 12 to 20 months, they metamorphosize into their adult form and return to the rivers and streams and spawn, after which they die.

Invasion of Great Lakes

Sea lampreys are considered a pest invasive species
Invasive species

Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions. The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically....
 in the Great Lakes region
Great Lakes region (North America)

The Great Lakes Region includes the Canada Provinces and territories of Canada of Ontario, the six United States states derived from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 , and portions of Western New York and Northwest Region....
. The species is native to the inland Finger Lakes
Finger Lakes

The Finger Lakes are a chain of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York that are a popular tourist destination. There are actually eleven lakes in the region, but only seven of the largest are commonly identified as the Finger Lakes....
 and Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain

Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada ? United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec....
 in New York and Vermont. It is not clear whether it is native to Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. The lake is bounded on the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south by Ontario's Niagara Peninsula and by the U.S....
, where it was first noticed in the 1830s, or whether it was introduced through the Erie Canal
Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a man-made waterway in New York state that runs about 365 miles from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes....
, which opened in 1825. It is thought that improvements to the Welland Canal
Welland Canal

The Welland Canal is a ship canal that runs 42 km from Port Colborne, Ontario on Lake Erie to Port Weller, Ontario on Lake Ontario. As part of the St....
 in 1919 allowed its spread from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, and while it was never abundant in either lake, it soon spread to Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one located entirely within the United States. The third-largest of the Great Lakes, it is bounded, from west to east, by the U.S....
, Lake Huron
Lake Huron

Lake Huron, bounded on the west by the U.S. state of Michigan, and on the east by the Provinces and territories of Canada of Ontario, Canada, is one of the five Great Lakes of North America....
, and Lake Superior
Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by Ontario, Canada and Minnesota, United States, and to the south by the U.S....
, where it decimated indigenous fish population in the 1930s and 1940s. They have created a problem with their aggressive parasitism on key predator species and game fish, such as lake trout
Lake trout

Lake trout is a freshwater Salvelinus living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, lake char , touladi, togue, and grey trout....
, lake whitefish
Lake whitefish

Lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis, are freshwater whitefish of North America; members of the salmon family. They are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States of Minnesota and Michigan, including the Great Lakes....
, chub
Freshwater whitefish

The freshwater whitefish are fish of the subfamily Coregoninae in the salmon family Salmonidae. Along with the freshwater whitefish, the Salmonidae includes the freshwater and anadromous trout and salmon species as well as graylings ....
, and lake herring
Northern cisco

The northern cisco , also known as lake herring or tullibee, is a species of fish in the salmon family .This species occasionally grows as large as 40 cm and 2.3 kg but is more commonly 28 to 38 cm long and 170 to 907 grams in weight....
. Elimination of these predators allowed the alewife
Alewife

The alewife is a species of herring. There are Fish migration and landlocked forms. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye ....
, another invasive species, to explode in population, having adverse effects on many native fish species. Control efforts, including electric current, chemical lampricides, and barriers, have met with varied success. The control programs are carried out under the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, a joint Canada-US body, specifically by the agents of the GLFC, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Fisheries and Oceans Canada , is the Ministry within the government of Canada that is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs in support of Canada's economic, ecological and scientific interests in oceans and inland waters....
, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
United States Fish and Wildlife Service

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is the unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior dedicated to the management and preservation of wildlife....
.

Efforts at control

Genetic researchers have begun mapping the sea lamprey's genome in the hope of finding out more about evolution; scientists trying to eliminate the Great Lakes problem are co-ordinating with these genetic scientists, hoping to find out more about its immune system and fitting it into its place in the phylogenetic tree. Several scientists in this field work directly for Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Fisheries and Oceans Canada , is the Ministry within the government of Canada that is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs in support of Canada's economic, ecological and scientific interests in oceans and inland waters....
 or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
United States Fish and Wildlife Service

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is the unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior dedicated to the management and preservation of wildlife....
. Researchers from Michigan State University have teamed up with others from the Universities of Minnesota, Guelph, Wisconsin, as well as many others in a massive research effort into newly synthesized pheromones. These are believed to have independent influences on the sea lamprey behavior. One pheromone serves a migratory function in that odor emitted from larva are thought to lure maturing adults into streams with suitable spawning habitat; the other, a sex pheromone, is emitted from males and is capable of luring females long distances to very specific locations - even in complete darkness and even though many lamprey at this stage in their life have strongly degraded eyesight. These two pheromones are actually both several different compounds that are thought to elicit different behaviors that collectively influence the lamprey to exhibit migratory behaviors or spawning behaviors. Effort is being made to characterize the function of each pheromone, each part of each pheromone, and if they can be used in a targeted effort at environmentally friendly lamprey control. It is the hope of the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission that at least some of this brilliant work into sea lamprey genetics as well as pheromones will pan out into a successful, effective management technique that could one day drastically reduce the need for TFM
TFM (piscicide)

TFM is a common piscicide, i.e., a fish poison used to combat parasite and invasive species of fish.The substance was discovered in 1958 when researching means to combat sea lampreys and it remains the primary lampricide in the Great Lakes area....
 treatments of spawning grounds. Despite millions put into research however, the most effective control measures are still being undertaken by control agents of State and Federal Agencies but involve the somewhat publicly unacceptable dumping of TFM into rivers.