The jawless, eel-like fish known as Pacific lamprey get little love from the uninitiated; with their toothy-maw used to suck blood from fish, they have perhaps the most unflattering smile in the animal kingdom.
But to many people, these ancient critters are important as both an indicator species and a food source for tribal people. And there are ongoing efforts to restore their numbers across Oregon waterways and beyond.
Earlier this summer, a large truck arrived on a warm sunny day at Coyote Creek, 10 miles west of Eugene. After parking by an old bridge spanning the water, Aaron Caldera and Aldwin Keo exited and greeted a crowd of people who came to learn about their special cargo, sloshing around in a large container on the flatbed.
“I work with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs,” Keo explained to the group. “I'm the lamprey biologist. I also am a student at the University of Idaho. I translocate lamprey from Bonneville back to my Warm Springs reservation.”
Translocation is moving adult fish from rivers to waterways above dams. Keo told KLCC that it’s his first year helping the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) with this operation. He and Caldera brought 100 lamprey from John Day and Bonneville to be released in both Coyote Creek and the Long Tom River, where they’ve not been a regular sight for 75 years.
“Just to get where lamprey were once before dams were put in place,” said Caldera. “So they can utilize the habitat that’s up here.”
One dammed challenge after another
Development of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dams took place in the 1950s, with 16 alone being placed above Willamette Falls, according to CRITFC. None had passageways for lamprey, disrupting their breeding cycle. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deems them a “species of concern.”
Courtney Golts, a lamprey biologist who also works with the Warm Springs tribal fisheries, said CRITFC’s efforts have gone on for 20 years.
“In the upper Willamette tributaries are areas that have been completely impassable to lamprey for decades, at the very least, so these are reintroductions to areas that now do not have Pacific lamprey, and as of today they now do,” Golts said.
Lamprey share the same migratory seasons as salmon, and can be the proverbial canary in the coal mine, indicating the environmental health of waterways. Keo said the lamprey’s larvae help clean the creek beds.
“They're filter feeders, they clean out whatever is in the sediment, that's where they stay for many years before they go out to the ocean,” Keo said.
It’s important to note that the Pacific lamprey is a welcome and important part of this ecosystem, unlike the invasive sea lampreys that historically have caused fish declines in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwest. Lamprey in general become parasitic in adulthood, and feed off large fish in the ocean such as salmon, pollock, tuna and even whales. These larger hosts can weather lamprey bites better than smaller fish found in rivers and lakes, which is why there were problems with them feeding on the Great Lakes fish.
Lampreys on the loose
The fisheries team took 50 lamprey down to Coyote Creek in large plastic buckets, followed by the group which consisted of members of the Long Tom Watershed Council’s Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program (TEIP). The fish looped and squirmed over each other, before slipping into the water.
Elizabeth Goward, community engagement manager for the McKenzie River Trust, engaged some of the kids, including a few who wondered why the lamprey were already hiding under logs and rocks.
“At night is actually when they do most of their migration,” said Goward. “So all of these lampreys, the reason they tuck into everything is because they can tell that it's bright out, and so they're more likely to get eaten by things like birds and foxes and coyotes. Isn’t that amazing?”
“That’s so cool, I want to hold one!” said one of the children.
Back at the truck, Keo and Caldera let some TEIP members and other people hold and handle the remaining lamprey.
“Ahhh, it’s twisting,” said Kristi Schneider of the McKenzie River Trust, as the lamprey planted its mouth firmly against the top of her hand. A beat later, it released its grip. “That was a lamprey kiss.”
Despite the fearsome appearance of their jagged-tooth mouths, the lamprey’s “kiss” is harmless to people and only leaves a faint indentation of where they temporarily latched onto someone. Other people took turns handling the soft-bodied fish, before returning them to their container.
Battling a bad rep
Getting lamprey-love going has been a bit of a sell. Between their invasive presence in the Great Lakes and their scary-looking mouths, these prehistoric fish can be intimidating. They’re even the hapless stars of a 2014 made-for-TV horror movie called “Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys” starring Christopher Lloyd and Shannon Doherty.
“No, no, no…it’s not like that,” laughed Raymond Ellenwood Jr., a fisheries technician with the Nez Perce Tribe. At another remote location near Hills Creek Dam outside Oakridge, he and a few others released lamprey at a former Boy Scout camp site.
The goal is to have adult lamprey stay and mate, creating little lampreys called ammocoetes. Ellenwood and fellow technician Jerrid Weaskus explained what they do.
“The ammocoetes, they burrow into the sand and the substrate and they’ll filter feed off the detritus in the river or stream,” said Ellenwood, adding that this helps clean the waterways.
“And what they’re doing is, the adults are smelling the ammocoetes that are upriver in those river systems,” continued Weaskus. “They’re telling them, ‘Hey that river system’s good. There’s good spawning habit. That’s where we want to go.’”
If all goes to plan, lamprey released here and in the Long Tom watershed area will start migrating to the Pacific Ocean around 2030, and come back as adults four years later. CRITFC and partners have their work cut out for them: while lamprey reputedly teemed in the millions through the Columbia River Basin, only 23,000 were recorded in 2010.
Lampreys on the rise?
While it’ll be some years before supporters can see whether or not the translocation efforts pay off, the public relations side of things for lamprey is on the up-and-up. Recently, at the Clackamette RV Park in Oregon City, more than 1,200 people signed up for the annual Yakama Nation Willamette Falls Lamprey Celebration.
“The falls, the river’s happy,” announced the emcee. “We’re here, rejoice and honor the Pacific lamprey.”
As a drum group began pounding a rawhide drum, Jeremy Five Crows joined other CRITFC staffers at a table, dispensing water bottles and other swag adorned with lamprey designs.
“This is only the fifth year, and each year it gets bigger and bigger,” said Five Crows, a Nez Perce tribal member. “Initially, there were maybe…not even a hundred people.”
CRIFTC has partnered with tribes and agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville Dam to support and promote lamprey (an event called “Lamprey-palooza” was hosted at the dam earlier in the week, which also drew good crowds). The Lamprey Celebration provides a half-day of Native music, boat tours of the falls, educational presentations, and yes – even a lunch with grilled lamprey.
In a report released last year, CRITFC said it’s frustrated by the lack of funding, staff and accountability from state and federal agencies. The commission has revised its plan to include new targets, and a technical document for scientists, students and resource managers, with a policy brief for lawmakers.
Five Crows said for a cherished eel-like fish that’s both a First Food and indicator of healthy waterways, it’s high time for all partners to step up to help it rebound.
“The lamprey line has been around for 450 million years. We’re closer to a T-Rex than a T-Rex was to lamprey,” he said. “That’s how far back they go, and so the thought of just in the past 100 years we could drive something extinct that’s been on Earth for that long, is terrible.”
Under CRITFC’s newly-revised plan, the goal is to have 1 million adult lamprey passing through Bonneville Dam and 1 million adults passing Willamette Falls by 2035. By 2050, the goal is for the lamprey population to level up to where they can be harvested sustainably “in as many historical locations locally and consumed safely in quantities historically available.”
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