They’re blood sucking prehistoric ‘vampire’ fish and are in a river near you, so should North East swimmers be concerned?
Their real name is lamprey and last week it was reported record numbers of them were returning to our waters including the Tyne, the Wear and the Tees.
They have been around for 450 million years, even before dinosaurs, which makes them the world’s oldest living vertebrates.
Lamprey are snake-like creatures with a circular disc of razor sharp teeth instead of jaws. They are truly scary to look at and their method of killing prey is Dracula-like.
However the Environment Agency which helps oversee and protect our waters, say the North East public has nothing to fear which is just as well, as it has been at the forefront of their return.
“They don’t attack humans,” said Paul Frear, fisheries technician for the EA.
“They look for fish like cod and salmon, they even attach themselves to basking sharks and rasp away, eating flesh and drinking their bodily fluid.”
While there have been the odd isolated incident of lamprey attaching themselves to swimmers, it is extremely rare.
But how can they tell the difference between a human and a fish? Smell, it seems.
Mr Frear explained: “They have a much more highly developed sense of smell than sharks.”
Once a common sight in our waterways, river and sea lampreys are now endangered across Europe.
However due to conservation efforts the fish have been seen in English rivers for the first time since the 1800s.
The pollution caused by the Industrial Revolution, along with the construction of mill weirs that blocked their migration, had a devastating effect on their numbers.
But lamprey are slowly returning to their old habitats, thanks to the lowest levels of pollution for more than 100 years and the Environment Agency’s work to remove some river structures like weirs. Where barriers cannot be removed a range of innovative techniques are being trialled, including the fitting of lamprey ‘tiles’, to help them navigate back to their old spawning grounds, including on the Tyne at Hexham.
Lamprey tiles are low-cost, low-maintenance tiles with broad cones that enable lamprey to squirm upwards using their sucker-like mouths to anchor themselves.
While there have been the odd isolated incident of lamprey attaching themselves to swimmers, it is extremely rare.
But how can they tell the difference between a human and a fish? Smell, it seems.
Mr Frear explained: “They have a much more highly developed sense of smell than sharks.”
Once a common sight in our waterways, river and sea lampreys are now endangered across Europe.
However due to conservation efforts the fish have been seen in English rivers for the first time since the 1800s.
The pollution caused by the Industrial Revolution, along with the construction of mill weirs that blocked their migration, had a devastating effect on their numbers.
But lamprey are slowly returning to their old habitats, thanks to the lowest levels of pollution for more than 100 years and the Environment Agency’s work to remove some river structures like weirs. Where barriers cannot be removed a range of innovative techniques are being trialled, including the fitting of lamprey ‘tiles’, to help them navigate back to their old spawning grounds, including on the Tyne at Hexham.
Lamprey tiles are low-cost, low-maintenance tiles with broad cones that enable lamprey to squirm upwards using their sucker-like mouths to anchor themselves.
