Why the NCFishes.com Team Think North Carolina’s Lampreys are Cool

The NCFishes.com Team has reported on North Carolina’s lampreys twice in our blogs — Distribution of American Brook Lamprey, Lethenteron appendix, in North Carolina (January 30, 2023) and Lamprey (Family Petromyzontidae) Diversity in North Carolina (January 4, 2021). Team members continue to think lampreys are cool for 10 reasons:

No. 1 – Physically lampreys lack pelvic and pectoral fins, jaws, scales, bones, and bony teeth. The lamprey skeleton is flexible and made of soft cartilage. There is a single medial nostril, seven pairs of gill openings, and the mouth is disk shaped with keratinoid teeth. Adults range in size from 100-1200 mm total length.

Lampetra aepyptera
Least Brook Lamprey – Lampetra aepyptera.

No. 2 – There are five species of lampreys in North Carolina of which two, Sea Lamprey and Ohio Lamprey, are parasitic (adults, using a suctorial oral disc, feed on blood, cellular fluids, and even muscle tissue); and three species, Least Brook Lamprey, Mountain Brook Lamprey, and American Brook Lamprey, are non-parasitic and non-feeding as adults. Immature lampreys, called ammocoetes, are filter feeders, feeding on microscopic detritus, algae, and bacteria.

Ichthyomyzon bdellium
Ohio Lamprey – Ichthyomyzon bdellium – oral disk.

No. 3 – Geographically if you want to find lampreys in North Carolina, then head west to our mountains. There are more species of lampreys (American Brook Lamprey, Ohio Lamprey, and Mountain Brook Lamprey) in Madison County than any other county in North Carolina. Several of our river basins lack lampreys for yet explainable reasons – Pigeon, Watauga, New, Catawba, Broad, Savannah, Lumber, and Waccamaw.

Ichthyomyzon greeleyi
Mountain Brook Lamprey – Ichthyomyzon greeleyi.

No. 4 – With so many of our indigenous freshwater fish species introduced into other river basins, it is encouraging to note that no lamprey species has been introduced outside of its native range in North Carolina.

No. 5 – Historically, to our knowledge, lampreys in the New World, specifically from North Carolina, were first painted between 1585-1593 by John White. Illustrated in remarkable and accurate detail, the Sea Lamprey painting was labeled with the Algonquin word used by the Croatoan First Peoples, Kokohockepúweo (https://www.coastalcarolinaindians.com/updated-algonquian-word-list-by-scott-dawson/) and with the note: “The Lampron, a foote in lengthe”.

Sea Lamprey by John White, 1585-1593; courtesy of the British Museum, No. SL,5270.103 (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_SL-5270-103).

No. 6 – More than a century after John White painted this fish, John Lawson in 1709 mentioned, presumably Sea Lamprey, as occurring in North Carolina’s [coastal] waters:. Lampreys are not common; I never saw but one, which was large, and caught by the Indians, in a Ware. They would not eat him, but gave him to me” (Lawson 1709, page 157 (Lawson, J. 1709. A new voyage to Carolina; containing the exact description and natural history of that country: together with the present state thereof. And a journal of a thousand miles, travel’d thro’ several nations of Indians. Giving a particular account of their customs, manners &c. London, England. 258p.).

No. 7 – Globally, lampreys have been around for ca. 360 million years (Renaud 2011). There are 38-40 known species (Renaud 2011; Potter et al. 2014) inhabiting all continents, except Antarctica. In North America there are 23 known species (Page et al. 2023).

No. 8 – It seems that lampreys have undeservedly been given a bad-rap in popular culture. By and large, lampreys are pretty benign creatures unless you are one of the parasitic lamprey’s hosts. The problems with Sea Lamprey in the Great Lakes were of our doing, not that of the lampreys. Annually tens of millions of dollars are spent by the United States and Canada to control Sea Lamprey in the Great Lakes and tributaries.

Petromyzon marinus
Sea Lamprey – Petromyzon marinus. Photo Credit: Brian Zimmerman.

No. 9 – A very informative presentation worth watching on North Carolina’s lampreys, focusing on Least Brook Lamprey, can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mMaQXDrlYw. But if your heart is set on watching some Grade B drive-in quality clips and movies on YouTube about lampreys, please don’t pass by these gems: 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVh4UF-3H9A; 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIuVZsDYM6E; and 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVh4UF-3H9A.

No. 10 – During the past two years Team members have given two presentations on lampreys to our professional organization, the North Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, and published two articles on lampreys:

  • Rohde, F.C., B.H. Tracy, and M. Fisk. 2023. Distribution of American Brook Lamprey, Lethenteron appendix, in North Carolina. Annual meeting of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Durham, NC. February 21-23, 2023 (pdf of talk).
  • Tracy, B.H., F.C. Rohde, M. Fisk, B. K. Jones, and L. Etchison. 2024. Diversity of stone suckers in North Carolina with the first report of one species parasitizing full-bodied fishes with fleshy, sucking lips. Annual meeting of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Sylva, NC. February 27-29, 2024 (pdf of talk).
  • Rohde, F., B.H. Tracy, and M. Fisk. 2023. Distribution of American Brook Lamprey, Lethenteron appendix in North Carolina. American Currents 48(4):22-24 (pdf of article).
  • Tracy, B.H. and B.K. Jones. 2024. First report of Robust Redhorse, Moxostoma robustum, serving as host for Sea Lamprey, Petromyzon marinus. American Currents 49(2):16-19 (pdf of article).

If you also think lampreys are cool and are interested in more information on lampreys in general or North Carolina’s lampreys in particular, please check out:

  • Page, L.M., K.E. Bemis, T.E. Dowling, H. Espinosa-Pérez, L.T. Findley, C.R. Gilbert, K.E. Hartel, R.N. Lea, N.E. Mandrak, M.A. Neighbors, J.J. Schmitter-Soto, and H.J. Walker Jr. 2023. Common and scientific names of fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 37. Bethesda, MD: American Fisheries Society. 439pp.
  • Renaud, C.B. 2011. Lampreys of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of lamprey species known to date. FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. No. 5. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. 109pp.
  • Potter, I.C., H.S. Gill, and C.B. Renaud. 2014. Petromyzontidae: Lampreys. In Freshwater fishes of North America, edited by M.L. Warren Jr. and B.M. Burr, pp. 106-139. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 644pp.
  • Tracy, B.H., F.C. Rohde, S.A. Smith, J.L. Bissette, and G.M. Hogue. 2024. A guide to North Carolina’s freshwater fishes. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 454pp.
  • Tracy, B.H., F.C. Rohde, and G.M. Hogue. 2020. An annotated atlas of the freshwater fishes of North Carolina. Southeastern Fishes Council Proceeding. No. 60. Volume 1. 198pp. (Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/vol1/iss60/1).

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