A survey team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is searching this week for a longtime invasive pest in streams that feed the Kalamazoo River. Sea lampreys are a primitive fish native to the Atlantic Ocean. They moved into the Great Lakes almost 200 years ago through artificial canals.
Lampreys are parasites that latch onto fish and usually kill them as they feed. FWS Fish biologist Matt Lipps said lamprey larvae live in stream beds. Then they grow a sucker mouth with circles of teeth.
“And they migrate out to the Great Lakes,” he said. “In about a year and a half they’re estimated to kill about 40 pounds of fish each.”
Lipps says a crew will go “electrofishing” for lamprey larvae.
“People kind of refer to it as, we kind of look like Ghostbusters. So, we send a little pulse of electricity into the substrate and it agitates the sea lamprey out of the muck. And then we collect them and we measure them,” he explained.
Lipps says the agency is planning a second round of surveys next month. It’s expected to treat affected streams with chemicals that kill lamprey larvae.
