By: Mary Genson | Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle | Published October 29, 2024
BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Sea lampreys are the newest residents at the Cranbrook Institute of Science. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission provided the sea lampreys along with an enclosure and tank fittings for the exhibit.
To welcome the exhibit, Cranbrook will host activities 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 2 and a documentary, “The Fish Thief,” at 2:30 p.m. The event is free with the purchase of general museum admission.
Guests will be able to get up close with 2-foot-long, 5-pound sea lampreys, listen to presentations from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and participate in fun and educational activities related to sea lampreys and the Great Lakes.
It is considered a family friendly event as children are encouraged to learn about this important topic. However, Cranbrook Institute of Science’s Public Programs Coordinator Janet Beylin said the documentary is not aimed for a young child audience.
Sea lampreys are also known as “vampire fish” because they use their suction to attach to fish and suck the blood and fluid out of them over time. In their disc-shaped mouth, they have over 100 sharp, hook-shaped teeth and a rasping tongue.
They are native to the sea, but in the 1800’s, they found their way to the Great Lakes and flourished in the freshwater environment. Beylin said the problem is that the lampreys are dangerous to the Great Lakes’ fish population.
In the ocean, they are used to attaching to whales and are considered to be more of an annoyance than a major threat. Since the Great lakes Fish are so much smaller than what the lampreys usually latch onto, it puts the fish in great danger.
By the 1950s, Beylin said, the stock of Great Lakes fish was down almost 90% because of sea lampreys.
“We will never be able to get rid of them, but we can control the population down to about 90%, and that’s what the Great Lakes Fishery Commission is involved in doing,” Beylin said.
The Great Lakes Fishery Commission is a Canada/United States body that was set up by a treaty in the 1950s. Among their many efforts, they control invasive sea lamprey in the Great Lakes and their basins. Public engagement is a huge part of what they do to increase awareness of what sea lampreys are, their negative impact and the control efforts made by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Sea lampreys are not only destructive to the fish population, eating about 40 pounds of fish each year, but they multiply quickly, since every female sea lamprey will lay 100,000 eggs.
“At the peak, sea lamprey were consuming about 110 million pounds of fish every year,” Gregory McClinchey, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission legislative affairs and policy director, said. “To put that into perspective, it means they were taking more fish out of the Great Lakes than people (were).”
Their numbers started going down in the late 1950s, when the Great Lakes Fishery Commission started controlling them.
“Fortunately, we’re in a good place, and the control program is strong,” McClinchey said.
Through programs such as the one Cranbrook Institute of Science is now offering, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission is able to give people an up-close look at what their creatures look like and learn about the destruction they cause to local waters.
“We are always appreciative of organizations and events that are willing to open their doors for us and to help us to deliver this really positive and important message.”