Are the Sea Lamprey Causing a decline in the Trout
Population?
The Sea Lamprey are causing a decline in the Trout population. According to Reading 7.2 we read in class, the female Sea Lamprey can lay 60,000 to 100,000 eggs per year. This is a lot more than the Trout populations females give birth to. This causes a decline in the Trout population because 60,000 Sea Lamprey alone is a lot of Sea Lamprey compared to the Trout population.This is because the Trout’s females only lay around 800 eggs per year which means that the Sea Lamprey can eat off the Trout pretty fast, which kills off the Trout population.
According to the reading 4.2 called Fisherman’s Journal, which was about the fishermen catching the trout, We found out that the fishermen were finding a bunch of wounds on the Trout. This is because when the Sea Lamprey connects to another fish, it starts eating up all of there blood which is kind of like a like a parasite, or like a symbiote (Mostly like a Parasite). Eating/sucking blood is faster than killing a fish, and when the female Sea Lamprey gives birth to all of those babies, it causes a decline in the Trout population. There’s a lot of Sea Lamprey that can sneak up behind the Trout, and then suddenly connect to them, and start eating/sucking up their blood. That doesn’t take very long, and it’s very hard to get them off you because the Sea Lamprey’s mouth is like a big, strong suction cup, and they usually connect to the back of the Trout’s body, and they can’t reach behind the back of their body to defend themselves. That’s because of the way the Trouts head is connected to their body. This causes a decline in the Trout population, because when the Trouts are being attacked by the Sea Lamprey, they can’t defend themselves.
When we were dissecting those Sea Lamprey, I noticed that the Sea Lamprey doesn’t have a stomach which makes it go even faster, because there’s not a lot of drag. According to page 68 of our science textbook which was Reading 6.2, it explained that they also go faster because they wiggle their whole body to move, and the trout only use half their body to move, and a whole body is faster than half a body because it’s stronger. This means it moves faster than the Trout, which means the Sea Lamprey will catch the Trout even if the Trout is trying to get away from the Sea Lamprey. Then they’ll start sucking up it’s blood. This causes a decline in the Trout population because the Trout can’t get away from the Sea Lamprey because the are too slow.
That’s why the Sea Lamprey are causing such a big decline in the Trout population.