The lamprey is one of the earliest relics of vertebrate evolution, dating back nearly 400 million years, before the evolution of jaws and bony skeletons. The species parasitizes other fish by attaching with their circular, toothy mouths and sucking the body juices. A single lamprey will feed for about a year, consuming on average 40 pounds of fish. In the Great Lakes, their prey have been commercially valuable species like lake trout and whitefish.
Currently, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) controls lamprey by means of a poison that kills lamprey larvae in streambeds. It also kills every invertebrate it comes in contact with, and sometimes fish. The lampricide is tanker-trucked to streams, some of them in populated areas, in an expensive, labor-intensive and unpopular undertaking. The GLFC is eager to use a synthetic form of the newly found pheromone to replace the poison by luring lamprey to traps and sterilizing the males, the researchers said. Using the pheromone would be environmentally friendly and less
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Contact: Deane Morrison
morri029@umn.edu
612-624-2346
University of Minnesota
2-Oct-2005