Scientific name- Petromyzon marinus

Out of many nonindigenous animals in North America, there is one special animal that is able to suck body fluids out of its prey. The sea lamprey is a long eel-like fish with a flared out mouth at one end. Sea lampreys feed on large fish such as trout. The sea lamprey will fasten its tooth- filled mouth onto its prey and rips out a hole with its rough tongue. Then, the sea lamprey will suck the body fluids out of the large fish. A special chemical in the sea lamprey’s saliva will keep the wound in the fish open until the fish dies. The saliva from the sea lamprey can keep the wound open for hours or weeks. Only 1 out of 7 fish attacked by a sea lamprey will survive.

The sea lamprey has many colors like gray, black, and a little blue. It has a shiny white color underneath. So, if you were to look at a sea lamprey from the bottom, you would see a shiny white color. If you were to look at a sea lamprey from a side view, you would see a metallic violet color. A sea lamprey can be 12 to 20 inches long.

The sea lamprey is native to the Atlantic Ocean, and because the Great Lakes are connected to the Atlantic, they have become a nonnative species in the Great Lakes. Since the sea lamprey came to the Great Lakes, some native fish species are in danger of dying out, such as the lake trout.

Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center is a group of scientists that have been trying to reduce the number of sea lampreys in the Great Lakes. At first, the scientists tried moving them out of the lakes by picking up sea lampreys and moving them away from the Great Lakes. Now, scientists at UMESC are making chemicals to reduce the number of sea lampreys. The chemicals are specially designed to kill the sea lampreys without killing or harming native species. They have made chemicals such as TFM and Bayluscide. These  chemicals are poured into lakes with sea lampreys and can kill the sea lamprey when it’s young. When the sea lamprey eats or is covered in these chemicals, it can die before it matures. This means that a sea lamprey can’t hurt another animal and that it can not produce any more sea lampreys. When this happens, fewer native species are attacked and killed by the sea lamprey.