Did the Sea Lamprey Cause a Decline in the Trout Population?
The trout population is decreasing because of the invasion of the Sea Lamprey. According to the lesson, 5 fishermen say that the trout they catch is either dead or have massive holes in their sides. They also catch less and less trout every day. When he fished at his spot this year, he caught twice as many trout last year. The trout has a small hole only the size of a quarter but it is very deep. This means that ever since the Sea lamprey got here, the trout population got halved. When the Sea Lamprey came to the Great lakes the trout population decreased greatly. From 1950 to 1970 the trout population decreased and the Sea Lamprey increased. The Sea Lamprey is an invasive species so they came and killed all of the trout and increased their population to 300,000. This means that the trout are heavily outnumbered. Which means that there is probably more than one sea lamprey for every trout. In food webs, the Sea Lamprey have no predators and have a ton of prey. This is important because the sea lampreys population is way more than the trouts and might even be so low that they could go extinct in a few years. This shows that ever since the Lamprey got here the trout population went down due to a combined effort from Lamprey and other trout predators.
It was discovered that the Sea Lamprey’s eggs have a big reason for being dangerous, they can carry 60,000 to 100,000 eggs which means they reproduce extremely fast. Every 1 female that dies giving birth means about 50,000 Sea Lamprey hatch every time a female lays eggs. This means that the sea lamprey has way more of their species than the trout. Which means that the Sea lamprey has so many more of its species the Lamprey kill more trout faster.
Another big factor is the way the Sea Lamprey swim. The sea lamprey is an S-Swimmer which means they use their whole body to move. The trout are half-body swimmers. Which means they are slower and its movements are more sluggish than the sea lamprey. This means that the trout have little chance of getting away with all of their blood.