NEWS Pheromone use may curb lamprey population Kari Siegle - Staff Reporter A group of University researchers is nosing ahead in the fight to control the parasitic sea lamprey.
Sea lamprey are boneless, jaw-less fish that are the oldest surviving vertebrae.
They kill other fish by attaching onto them with their circular mouths and sucking out the fluids. Sea lamprey have wreaked havoc on fish in the Great Lakes since the early 1900s, when the species first found a route around Niagara Falls. During the 1940s it killed nearly all the other fish species in the Great Lakes. Currently the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, a combined effort of the Canadian Parliament and United States Congress, is responsible for re-stocking the lakes with fish and administering pesticide to lamprey spawning areas. But some University researchers think they may have a way to control the sea lamprey without the large amount of pesticides currently used.