Eels

[Tallguy]

Never been a big fan of eels. Remind me too much of snakes, and God I hate snakes.

While not technically an eel, there are some wolf eel caught out of Westport every year, and quite frankly those things kinda scare the shit out of me lol. Gnarly creatures. Never caught one on my boat, and honestly I'd be happy to keep it that way.

Snakes of the sea, no thanks!

I'd love to catch one on your boat, they taste so so good. In New England waters the closely related species are called "wolf fish" and not "wolf eel". I caught one there 4 or so feet long, on a party boat trip when I was young. Still probably the best white fish I have ever eaten, they eat scallops and lobster and clam type things I think so their flavor is great.

I saw a big big one caught once, and I remember the deckhand letting it bite a steel railing and the monster teeth leaving scratches in the steel.

 

[BriGuy]

I'd love to catch one on your boat, they taste so so good. In New England waters the closely related species are called "wolf fish" and not "wolf eel". I caught one there 4 or so feet long, on a party boat trip when I was young. Still probably the best white fish I have ever eaten, they eat scallops and lobster and clam type things I think so their flavor is great.

I saw a big big one caught once, and I remember the deckhand letting it bite a steel railing and the monster teeth leaving scratches in the steel.

No wonder @Nick Clayton has the heebie-jeebies!

 

[Smalma]

The river lamprey while smaller (about 1/2 the size) than its cousin the Pacific lamprey is a pretty interesting critter. Like the Pacific it also migrates to the salt where it is parasitic feeding on other fish. Apparently some individuals instead of migrating to the salt will instead use large lakes (think L. Washington) where the forage on various fish in the lake.

curt

 

[EB590]

Years ago there was a program called Filthy Riches that profiled a guy in New Year that built a weir to capture out migrating eels on the Delaware river to smoke and sell, which I thought was cool.

The glass eels would be migrating towards rivers. I do love me some unagi though. I didn't realize that some were American eels and not Japanese eels. I wonder how they compare.

Yep, I'll be floating by that eel wier on Friday. Shitty place to anchor, unless you want to lose your anchor.

 

[Matt B]

There are three lamprey species in Washington: Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus - up to 31" long, Western river lamprey (Lampetra ayresii - up to 12" long) and Western brook lamprey (Lampetra richardsoni - up to 7" long). All three species are likely found in the Snohomish system. Without being any kind of lamprey expert, I would say that these carcasses are Western river lamprey based only on size.
Only the Pacific lamprey is anadromous (post-juveniles spend parts of their lives in the Pacific Ocean) and it is the only species that is parasitic: feeding the body fluids of other fishes [wrong on both scores as Western river lamprey has a similar life cycle and feeding ecology.]. The Western river lamprey and the Western brook lamprey spend their entire lives in freshwater [correction: nope, just the Western brook lamprey lives exclusively in freshwater]. Both are filter-feeders [correction: nope, only the Western brook lamprey.] that consume algae, such as diatoms, and other microorganisms from freshwater sediments. [Correction: As @Smalma points out in a later contribution, the Western river lamprey is actually parasitic as an adult and is also anadromous.]
All lampreys, like salmon and Anguillid eels (European eel, American eel, Japanese eel, etc.), are semelparous = breed once and then die. According to this WDFW web site, the lamprey breeding season in Washington is typically April to July, but it can be earlier if the stream temperatures are warmer. Males and females work together to build a nest (like a salmon redd) and the eggs are deposited in the sediment.

My Inner Lumper finds some new research strangely satisfying:

“…to further disrupt the species taxonomy, they demonstrated that western brook lamprey (Lampetra richardsoni) and western river lamprey (Lampetra ayresii) cannot be distinguished based on genetic information - meaning they are the same species. This is interesting since they have two different life forms: western river lamprey are migratory and parasitic as adults, whereas western brook lamprey are resident (non-migratory) and remain non-parasitic as adults. The scientists recommend keeping their common names to honor the two different life history forms, but the scientific name for both is now Lampetra ayresii – well, Lampetra until they rename the genus.” https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/rm...iversity-discoveries-story-scientific-success

I think we think we know more than we actually do! A lot of times we haven’t really looked into it deeply enough…
I see parallels here in these lampreys and O. mykiss…

 

[Cabezon]

My Inner Lumper finds some new research strangely satisfying:

“…to further disrupt the species taxonomy, they demonstrated that western brook lamprey (Lampetra richardsoni) and western river lamprey (Lampetra ayresii) cannot be distinguished based on genetic information - meaning they are the same species. This is interesting since they have two different life forms: western river lamprey are migratory and parasitic as adults, whereas western brook lamprey are resident (non-migratory) and remain non-parasitic as adults. The scientists recommend keeping their common names to honor the two different life history forms, but the scientific name for both is now Lampetra ayresii – well, Lampetra until they rename the genus.” https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/rm...iversity-discoveries-story-scientific-success

I think we think we know more than we actually do! A lot of times we haven’t really looked into it deeply enough…
I see parallels here in these lampreys and O. mykiss…

Great find, Matt. And I love the parallel.
Steve

 

[SilverFly]

Never been a big fan of eels. Remind me too much of snakes, and God I hate snakes.

While not technically an eel, there are some wolf eel caught out of Westport every year, and quite frankly those things kinda scare the shit out of me lol. Gnarly creatures. Never caught one on my boat, and honestly I'd be happy to keep it that way.

Snakes of the sea, no thanks!

I'd say it's perfectly normal to be scared shitless by a wolf eel.

 

[SilverFly]

My Inner Lumper finds some new research strangely satisfying:

“…to further disrupt the species taxonomy, they demonstrated that western brook lamprey (Lampetra richardsoni) and western river lamprey (Lampetra ayresii) cannot be distinguished based on genetic information - meaning they are the same species. This is interesting since they have two different life forms: western river lamprey are migratory and parasitic as adults, whereas western brook lamprey are resident (non-migratory) and remain non-parasitic as adults. The scientists recommend keeping their common names to honor the two different life history forms, but the scientific name for both is now Lampetra ayresii – well, Lampetra until they rename the genus.” https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/rm...iversity-discoveries-story-scientific-success

I think we think we know more than we actually do! A lot of times we haven’t really looked into it deeply enough…
I see parallels here in these lampreys and O. mykiss…

Lamprey give me the creeps. I mean are they really a fish? ( ) Just on appearance they look closer to worms on the evolutionary scale. Yeee-uckk!

 

[Stonedfish]

Anyone ever eat a lamprey? If so, good or not?
I know the tribes harvested them. I recall this article popping up in my news feed last year.
SF

Tribes celebrate as lamprey make a comeback on Willamette

Pacific lamprey are returning to the Columbia River in record numbers. That’s boosting tribal efforts to help the fish, which are a big part of some tribes' histories.

www.opb.org

 

[Travis Bille]

Anyone ever eat a lamprey? If so, good or not?
I know the tribes harvested them. I recall this article popping up in my news feed last year.
SF

Tribes celebrate as lamprey make a comeback on Willamette

Pacific lamprey are returning to the Columbia River in record numbers. That’s boosting tribal efforts to help the fish, which are a big part of some tribes' histories.

www.opb.org

I had a patient from the Hoopa reservation in Northern California on the Trinity River. She gave me a jar of smoked lamprey. It was absolutely fantastic.

My daughter was 10 at the time. I called her over and had her try some "smoked salmon". Her eyes lit up and she said it was the best thing she had ever eaten. Then I told her it was actually eel.

She was not thrilled.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

As a kid in the early sixties, we used to see what I now have learned are Brook Lamprey. They were in a little creek that fed into the lower Green River near Kent. We called them "eels" of course, and I corralled one once after a lot of effort and took it home in a jar. It promptly died overnight predictably, but I still remember feeling kind of bad about it..

Thanks for posting and prompting the memory bank!

 

[Smalma]

Matt B -
Thanks for the link! I don't know when it comes to looking at western North American genetic structuring whether that it was found that what we thought of as brook and river lamprey were the same species or that the region potentially supports 7 lamprey species.

Curt

 

[Matt B]

One of my favorite parts of the story is how much scientific discovery came about sort of unintentionally or just out of natural curiosity chasing down the next obvious question. I think this quote from the link summarizes an important point: “Carim says their work recognizes that, ‘Some fish we say are different are the same. And then other fish that we say are the same, are different.’”

 

[Smalma]

One of my favorite parts of the story is how much scientific discovery came about sort of unintentionally or just out of natural curiosity chasing down the next obvious question. I think this quote from the link summarizes an important point: “Carim says their work recognizes that, ‘Some fish we say are different are the same. And then other fish that we say are the same, are different.’”

A great quote indeed showing the need for an open mind for anyone looking in depth at a resource.

Does their findings and reporting mean they are "Splitters" or "lumpers"?

Reminds me of the early days of looking at our bull trout/native char. Every time something new was learned one or more new questions (always better questions) were created. I hope the bull trout articles on this site illustrate the kinds of result that sort of approach can produce.

Curt

 

[Matt B]

Does their findings and reporting mean they are "Splitters" or "lumpers"?

Haha, good point. I think the answer is, “Yes.”

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

In California they have Moray Eels. They used to be quite common, but I believe they were over harvested (commercially). They never bit me but my buddy got ten stitches once while diving with yellow gloves. Probably the eel thought his finger was Urchin roe. They also fish for Slime Eels. They are accurately named, and tend to bite each other and ruin the skins that are made into wallets, like a very fine leather. The Slime Eels are also sold for bait. Slime eels (Hagfish) are quite an interesting google search.

 

[Nick Clayton]

There's a slime eel fishery off our coast as well. Those things gross me out.

 

[Northern]

We catch these in the kokanee fry traps occasionally this time of year:


Lake Samm trib lamprey

 

[Snopro]

There's a slime eel fishery off our coast as well. Those things gross me out.

You're having a bad day when you dump a trailer full of hagfish, worth 200k, on a public Oregon roadway. All the Kleenex at Costco couldn't have handled that mucous tsunami. "It smelled marine like".



My personal favorite lamprey species in the PNW is the Miller lake lamprey, Entosphenus minimus.

 

[Jim in Anacortes]

This thread compelled me to shop for an eel skin wallet on Amazon. I like the $70 one. The feel of an eel's hide..it is unique.