Lamprey actually native to region!

[hermit]

It's been a while since I've been in school but here's the "book report".
The topic first came up here.
 
Several interesting points that say a lot more than the abstract and clarify the canal/native thing.  I was pretty surprised at first!  Hard to argue with DNA though, fascinating!  (Or something, it's kept me obsessively occupied the past few hours.)  They actually are native!
 
-Lamprey entered the upper Great Lakes through the Welland Canal.  This is well established and the subsequent invasion of the upper Great Lakes is well understood.  These lamprey came from Ontario (Capt. Obvious checking in   ) and there's plenty of good info out there about the lamprey in these lakes for the curious.
 
-It is most likely that lamprey entered Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain via the St. Lawrence River.  Cayuga Lake lamprey most likely came from Lake Ontario via the Seneca and Oswego rivers, NOT the canal system! The lamprey have been in the Finger Lakes (and Ontario and Champlain) for >10,000 years.  Biggest shock of the article for me.
 
-The Ontario and Champlain population share some characteristics but are distinct.  Cayuga Lake lamprey are also distinct, and while they are most closely related to Ontario Lamprey there are definite differences. 
 
-It is likely that historically low Cayuga Lake populations caused this effect- what they call a genetic bottleneck.  If population is low at some point, genetic diversity drops, and even if the population rises again, those genes are lost and the remaining lamprey are a little less diverse.  This happened to the Cayuga lamprey.  (It also happened each time the lamprey invaded another Great Lake, meaning that Superior has the least genetic diversity among the lamprey.)
 
-The genetic data for the lamprey being native is also backed by the existence of the Seneca strain of lake trout, the only known strain of lake trout that exhibits behaviors that thwart the lamprey.
 
-The historical record doesn't show lamprey in Champlain, the Finger Lakes, or Ontario before the early-mid 1800's, which was one of the main reasons it was thought the canals were the means of migration.  However-
 
-That the lamprey have become a nuisance in the Finger Lakes in recent times is due to other changes in the lakes caused by human activity.  Other invasive species, loss of species, intentionally introduced species, whatever- the long-running balance in the Finger Lakes between lamprey and prey got knocked out of whack and has never come back. (And never will.)  Also relates to the Seneca strain laker.
 
-They explain the discrepancy with the historical record by the previous low populations (shown by genetic bottlenecks) and the fact that people didn't write a lot down back then, and records are very spotty to nonexistent.  So the lamprey happily co-existed with the lakers, original atlantics, cisco and whitefish, and only became a problem after we mucked things up.
 
-This study did not sample any Finger Lakes other than Cayuga, but since migration between the Finger Lakes is easier than between the other bodies of water mentioned, I would guess the lamprey are likely most similar to Cayuga's but have minor differences.
 
-Another interesting fact, not really related- lamprey don't 'home' on a birth stream like salmon do.  They follow pheromones in the water from the young still in the stream to find the spawning grounds.  I remember reading something within the past few years about how they may use these pheromones to lure and trap adults returning to spawn. 
 
 
 
Source:
 
Bryan MB et al, 2005. Patterns of invasion and colonization of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in North America as revealed by microsatellite genotypes. Molecular Ecology, vol. 14: pages 3757-3773

 

edit: added link to previous post

 

edit 2:   minor but embarrassing confession... I knew all this already and forgot it.    The pics in the article started looking familiar and I looked through my email and files on an old computer- and found this same article from back in '05 and some conversations about it!  It was even discussed here on the board, though perhaps on the part that was permanently erased.  Crap my memory sucks....    damn you whiskey it's been 10 years...

Edited September 13, 2013 by hermit

[Sk8man]

Thanks Hermit...very interesting stuff. Too bad they can't select a non-trout stream and bombard it with pheromones, get the things in there and block it off with a wire mesh screen temporarily and treat it with lampracide.....of some type that would kill adults as well as the amoecete stage.

[bassman4468]

I actually encountered Lamprey in the Chautauqua lake watershed back in the early 80's. I caught some with a net when I was probably around 12 years in a small creek that feeds into Chautauqua lake. I remember my father telling me what they were. They were definitely the strangest thing that I had ever seen at that time with all those teeth around their mouths...

[stinger]

Good reading. Thanks.

 

A picture to go along with your book report.

[Sk8man]

Too bad the cannonball wasn't a grenade

[jimski2]

For several May 15th spring days I observed brook lamphreys spawn on the upper Genesee River above Wellsville. These are native lamphrey not sea lamphrey.

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[sawbelly]

The question of whether or not sea lamprey are native to Lake Ontario is far from being settled.

 

See: R. L. Eschenroder,  "Comment: Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates Sea Lampreys are Indigenous to Lake Ontario".  In, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, Vol 138(5):1178-1189.

 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1577/T08-035.1#preview

[lakebound88]

Genessee river in Wellsville NY and a small tributary to that called dyke creek where I fish for stockers and holdovers with a fly, has so many lamprey eels it is Scarry. I once was over deep in shorts and sandals and about five hundred of them went by me all around. Needless to say I ran out as fast as I could. They were 5-7 inches at the time. Although their color was a bit different than what I have seen in the lakes..

Nick

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