Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct assessment of Huron River to search for evidence of sea lamprey

ANN ARBOR – If you've never heard of sea lamprey, you've no doubt seen pictures like the one above of these creepy, vampire-like creatures. Vampire-like, you ask? Yes. They're an invasive species of the Great Lakes that, according to the Detroit Free Press, "attach to fish with a suction cup mouth, rasp a hole through the fish’s scales and skin, and feed on blood and body fluids."

Why do you need to know about them? Because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting an assessment of the Huron River through June 7 in search of sea lamprey larvae evidence. They will do this by applying a chemical that drives them out into the open, according to the Detroit Free Press. (They're conducting the same assessment of the Detroit River.)

Here's what else you need to know from the Detroit Free Press: 

• The inspections are part of an effort by the Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor hundreds of Great Lakes tributaries every spring and summer.
• The average sea lamprey will destroy up to 40 pounds of fish during its parasitic phase.
• Failure to detect and subsequently eliminate larvae allows the lampreys to transform into parasitic adults and kill Great Lakes fish.
• The Great Lakes Fishery Commission (based in Ann Arbor) will use the research to decide how and where to control the lamprey larvae with pesticides known as lampricides. 

Read the full story here. 

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