Facts
Choosing Sea Lamprey for our topic was easy. We, Bryanne and Amanda, enjoy marine life. Looking through marine organism on the internet we came across sea lamprey and the first picture we saw was of a sea lamprey’s mouth expanded all the way open and a hundred teeth circling on the inside. This was intriguing enough for us to try and find more information about this invasive parasitic fish!
Sea Lamprey are an invasive species. Invasive species overall effect
you whether you realize it or not, like
zebra mussels.They have decreased the populations of native
species of fish, which affects industries who disrupt fish. Leading
to effects on the food chain and the socioeconomic status. Because
of this disruptance there are now federal and state programs to
regulate this problem. This is interesting because before checking
out this website you won’t have known how harmful sea lamprey have
been to places such as the Great lakes and Lake Champlain. Did you
know that sea lamprey kill 18.2 kg of fish each year (Cherry, 2011)?
In 1991 the United States and Canada have used an estimated of 8-12
million dollars to lessen the sea lamprey’s attacks in their lakes
(USGS, 2013).
Do other species of lamprey have this effect? Yes, river lamprey in
the United Kingdom. River lamprey are similar to sea lamprey to
almost every detail. The lampreys body, life cycle and ways they get
food. Although, river lamprey are found more in Europe then the
United States (Arkive, 2013). Another difference between these two
types of lamprey is that river lamprey’s biggest predator is
indirect contact with humans, such as river pollution, river
engineering and changes on land (Arkive, 2013). Compared to sea
lamprey’s biggest predator being humans and their direct contact.
There are seven species of lamprey, another lamprey is the brook
lamprey. The brook lamprey is the smallest of all and it is not
parasitic (Ohio Department of Natural Resources, 2013). According to
Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources, six of the seven species of
lamprey are native to Ohio and do not harm the sport of fishing or
fish industries. Sea lamprey are the only invasive species of Ohio
and are the only one of the lamprey who are considered a threat
(Ohio Department of Natural Resources, 2013).