ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF LAMPREY FOR CONSERVATION AND CONTROL

There is a long history of artificial propagation of lampreys, with recent developments driven by the need for research animals and for recovery of imperiled species.  Lamprey culture initially produced specimens for the study of evolutionary development in vertebrates.  More recently, artificially propagated larvae have been used to improve identification methods for native lampreys, study invasive sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus in the Laurentian Great Lakes, provide animals for genomic studies, and for restoration and conservation.  

Broodstock holding has indicated that adult lampreys tolerate extremely high densities when provided with cold, oxygenated water (Fig. 1).  Fertilization and incubation experiments revealed that gamete contact times are very short and that embryos are resilient to low flow and poor water quality (Fig. 1).

Early larvae (Fig. 2) are also resilient to these factors and can tolerate abrupt changes in temperature and extended periods of starvation.  However, they cannot survive sudden changes in water quality, excessive disturbance, and lack of beneficial microbial communities.  These observations have led to more efficient and effective lamprey propagation and have yielded important information about the early life stage requirements of lampreys in the wild.

Further study is needed on a broader array of species to allow inter-specific comparisons of early life history.  However, information from lampreys receiving the most attention to date (European river lamprey Lampetra fluviatilis, sea lamprey, and Pacific lamprey) indicates that culture and environmental requirements of the early life stages are remarkably similar, allowing generalization across lamprey species.