Sea Lamprey Teams are Back to Work in the Great Lakes

Sea lampreys are an invasive primitive fish parasite that can cause serious harm to fish populations. Assistant professor Gordon Paterson of the Great Lakes Research Center and Biology Sciences department gave some answers as to why sea lampreys are so harmful. He sais that they are an excellent parasite, and it’s estimated that a single adult lamprey will kill over 40 pounds of fish in its lifetime.

During the pandemic some U.S. and Canadian Sea Lamprey teams were not able to conduct lampricde treatments as often, likely resulting in an increase in successful spawns for the parasitic fish. Many of those teams have returned to work, and are back to reducing sea lamprey populations.

Sea lampreys are a concern throughout the Great Lakes, primarily harming populations of whitefish, salmon and trout. It was only due to effective fishery management in the 1950’s that there still are naturally reproducing schools of lake trout in Lake Superior.

Anglers that find sea lampreys should remove them from the fish and exterminate them. The Michigan DNR asks those sea lampreys are not returned to the water, as to help limit the spread of their populations. The Great Lakes are also home to native lamprey species, though they are often much smaller than sea lamprey when full grown adults. 

You can find more Great Lakes and Sea Lamprey information here, here and here.