The sea lamprey caused a decline in the trout population.
According to the charts we looked at in class from 1950-1970 the trout declined and the sea lamprey increased so the sea lamprey was eating all of the trout population. The trout population was at 150,000 in 1950 then declined to about 0. The sea lamprey was at 100,000 then increased to like 350,000. The sea lamprey is a predator of trout, and the sea lamprey is bigger and longer so they need more food than the other kinds of lamprey. I know my evidence supports my claim because the sea lamprey are an invasive species and when fishermen take the fish out of the water they see the teeth mark from the sea lamprey from when the sea lamprey feeds on the trouts blood. So in result, the trout population is declining a lot and fishermen can’t catch them to sell to stores so then we can’t eat them for any meals.
According to the readings, the sea lamprey are S-swimmers so they swim faster than the trout which make the trout population easy targets. The structures of the bodies of the sea lamprey make it swim faster than the trout. The trout are half body swimmers. So obviously by the name you can tell they only use half of their bodies to swim. So given that the sea lamprey, a big predator of the trout and the sea lamprey are S-swimmers the trout are in a lot of trouble. An S-swimmer is a fish that uses their whole body while swimming. A half body swimmer is very literal and the fish can only use half their body to swim. So they are slower swimmers than the S-swimmers which the sea lamprey are.
The female sea lamprey reproduces at the bottom of a body of flowing water, to be specific rivers. They reproduce from 60,000 to 100,000 eggs. The female sea lamprey lives for 12-18 months as larvae and in general, so the females have short lifespans. So basically the female sea lamprey is impregnated when they are infants or babies is what some people would call it and then they die soon after. So it’s sort of in the trout population’s favor that the female sea lamprey die after giving birth but also they have to deal with 60,000-100,000 new baby sea