1. By: Daniel Bassani, Michael Morassutti, Anastasiya, and Younos
The Sea Lamprey
By: Daniel Bassani, Michael Morassutti, Anastasiya, and Younos

2. What Is a Sea Lamprey?
An eel-like fish native to the Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Adriatic Sea
Adapted to fresh water bodies such as the Great Lakes, but do not grow as big in size as they do in salt water
Spend from 1-2 years feeding on fish
Uses its sucker mouth, sharp teeth and tongue to attach itself to the body of a fish and suck its blood
Fish is left with a circular wound that can get infected and kill it

3. What is the Sea Lamprey Cont.
Cylindrical bodies are 30 to 76 centimetres long
Can be dark brown or green/black colour
A sea lamprey can destroy up to 18kg of fish
About 1 in 7 fish can survive a Sea Lamprey attack
They feed on lake trout, salmon, rainbow trout, whitefish, chubs, burbot, walleye, catfish
Entered the great lakes through man-made shipping canals in the 1940s
Have been living in the ocean for hundreds of millions of years

4. How Does It Grow/Reproduce?
4. Parasitic fish grow a suction cup mouth with sharp, hooked teeth. They migrate to open lakes where they prey on fish.
1. Spawning phase, sea lamprey migrate into streams and build nests from rocks. They spawn, and then die.
3. Larvae transforms into parasitic fish.
2. Larvae burrow into the river bottom and live there for several years.

5. Equipment Used to Find and Track the Sea Lamprey
In the earliest attempts to control the Lampreys, American scientists tested thousands of chemicals before finding one that could kill Lampreys and not harm other species
Today a similar chemical is used to kill Lampreys and not harm other species. It is called Lampricide
Lampricide is used to kill the larvae or reduce their population before they get to their parasitic phase
About 175 lakes and streams are regularly treated with lampricide to reduce their population

6. Equipment for Tracking Cont.
Small dams can be used to block Lampreys because they are weak swimmers and fish can jump over them
Electric barriers and fast moving currents can also stop them because they are weak swimmers
They sterilize males so they can’t reproduce as quickly
Method called electrofishing removes Lampreys from their burrows, in 250 of the 440 streams where lampreys are known to live
Mobile science labs are used to monitor Lampreys in 40 Canadian streams
Barriers are used to stop up-stream migration, but do allow other fish to pass through
The sea lampreys are trapped in traps. They are then used in research and testing

7. Equipment for Tracking Pictures
(Above) Shows a barrier to stop up-stream migration of Sea Lamprey
(Below) Show distribution of Lampricide in a stream
(Above) Shows tracking of Sea Lamprey in Great Lakes
(Left) Shows Electrofishing to remove Lamprey from burrows

8. Effect Species has on Humans
Damages the great lakes fishery by reducing fish populations
Attacks lake trout, steelhead, perch and other species of fish
Fish have little defence against sea lamprey attacks and often die from their wounds, which has a profound affect on the ecosystem
From the 1940s to the early 1960s, growing sea lamprey populations we hard to control without modern methods of extermination

9. How Does the Sea Lamprey Affect Food Webs?
The sea lamprey eats large fish which are at the top of the food web in the Great Lakes
Populations of the smaller fish increase because the large fish aren’t there to eat them
The producers’ population will decrease because the increased population of the smaller fish will eat all of the producer
Eventually it will leave the small fish without food and the whole food web will collapse

10. Video
Start at 0:11
End at 1:22

11. Sea Lamprey