Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - July/August 2013 - 55

The mountain brook lamprey inhabits smaller waterways.
This non-parasitic lamprey occurs in fairly small numbers
in the Allegheny River drainage and a few places in western
Pennsylvania.

The silver lamprey inhabits large rivers and lakes. As adults, they
attach themselves to fish by a toothy, suction disk mouth and
rasp and suck nutrients from its host.

parasitic species but not so much in those that will not
feed. Pennsylvania lampreys spawn in communal nests in
April and May. Undulating masses of spawning lampreys
in shallow riffles have been referred to as “dead men’s
fingers” in northwestern Pennsylvania. They die shortly
after spawning, and it is not unusual for researchers to find
pools with dead and dying lampreys lying about during
these months.
Survey work that has resulted from funding through
programs such as State Wildlife Grants, the Wild Resource
Conservation Program and County Natural Heritage
Inventories has greatly increased our knowledge of the
status of our brook lampreys in recent years. Generally,
these species have restricted distributions in the state,
but their status varies. Populations of the least brook
lamprey, a candidate species, have changed little over the
past 25 years, and it appears to be uncommon but stable.
Its primary range is scattered through the Ohio River
drainage in the southwest region of Pennsylvania, but
there is also a small occurrence in the Susquehanna River
drainage in southernmost Chester County.
The mountain brook lamprey occurs in fairly small
numbers in the Allegheny River drainage and a few places
in western Pennsylvania. It too appears to be somewhat
stable but exists in small numbers. It is classified as a
threatened species.
The dubious distinction of being our most rare fish
probably should be bestowed upon the mountain brook
lamprey. First discovered in a tributary to Lake Erie in
1968, it has been collected only a few times since that
instance. In fact, a specimen found in 2009 was the first
adult documented in the state in more than 30 years.

Always rare to begin with, this lamprey has been impacted
by habitat loss and almost certainly by a federal Great Lakes
sea lamprey control program. It is listed as an endangered
species in Pennsylvania.
The best news that resulted from the recent survey
work is that the American brook lamprey is doing well in
Pennsylvania. It was found in many smaller streams that
were not been previously surveyed. Formerly a candidate
species, as a result of these recent efforts it was delisted in
December 2012. In addition, the Ohio lamprey, mentioned
earlier, now appears to be more common than records
previously indicated, as is under consideration for delisting.
With the exception of the sea lamprey (in a negative
sense) lampreys are of little economic value to man. They
serve as prey for gamefish and are considered a delicacy
in parts of Europe, Japan and South Korea. And, they are
sometimes used in biomedical research.
Although many Pennsylvanians rarely see them, lampreys
are important environmental indicators—canaries in the
coal mine of sorts. They are rather intolerant of degraded
conditions and pollution, and the fact that some are
listed as endangered, threatened or candidate species and
absent from many waterways tells us our water quality
improvement work is far from complete.
The lampreys also make up an important chapter in our
environmental history. Although barely fishes, lacking jaws
and paired fins and held together by a skeleton of cartilage,
they are considered the most primitive of the finny tribes
and the oldest living.
Due to their absence of real bones, fossil lampreys dating
back 360 million years have reported.
Although it isn’t much of a life, it works for the lampreys.

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