LIFE HISTORY OF THE SEA LAMPREY OF CAYUGA LAKE (N.Y.) 



By Roland L. Wigley, Fishery Research Biologist, bureau of commercial fisheries 



In recent years the sea lamprey, Petromyzon 

 marinus Linnaeus, has attracted the attention of 

 commercial fishermen, sportsmen, and fishery biol- 

 ogists because of the destruction of food and game 

 fishes attributed to this parasite. It was the inva- 

 sion and rapid multiplication of the sea lamprey in 

 the upper Great Lakes, coincident with the drastic 

 decline of food fishes, especially lake trout in Lake 

 Huron and Lake Michigan, which stimulated in- 

 terest in the life-history study of the sea lamprey. 

 One phase of the Great Lakes sea lamprey investi- 

 gation was to obtain detailed information on bio- 

 logical characteristics of an endemic sea lamprey 

 population in order to make comparisons with the 

 newly expanding Great Lakes population. 



Cayuga Lake has been inhabited by a thriving 

 sea lamprey population for centuries. In addi- 

 tion to offering a natural habitat of limited size, 

 Cayuga Lake has only one tributary that is exten- 

 sively used by the sea lamprey for spawning. 

 Thus, a study of the Cayuga Lake sea lamprey was 

 undertaken in order to obtain comparative data 

 and basic information pertaining to the life cycle 

 of the sea lamprey. 



The year 1875 marks the beginning of scientific 

 inquiry into the taxonomic status and life history 

 of the Cayuga Lake sea lamprey. In the spring of 

 that year, a large male lamprey was captured in 

 Cascadilla Creek, a tributary of Cayuga Lake near 

 Ithaca. This specimen was unusually large and 

 its coloration and large ropelike dorsal ridge were 

 greatly different from immature specimens pre- 

 viously taken from the lake. Wilder studied this 

 specimen and, after he obtained others, named it 

 Petromyzon marinus dorsatus (Jordan and Gilbert, 

 1883). 



Meek (1889) summarized observations on 

 spawning habits and gave some data on size com- 

 position and sex ratio of the 1886 spawning run in 

 Cayuga Inlet. Surface (1898, 1899) reported con- 

 siderable information on natural enemies, host 

 species, and control methods. Gage (1893, 1928) 

 contributed much to our knowledge of the sea 



lamprey of Cayuga Lake. His studies encom- 

 passed the anatomical and physiological aspects as 

 well as its life history. His works have long been 

 considered an authoritative source of information 

 concerning the sea lamprey. 



Profs. Edward C. Raney, Dwight A. Webster, 

 and John C. Avers, Department of Conservation, 

 Cornell University, guided and assisted in the 

 organization of this study. William F. Carbine, 

 Dr. James W. Moffett, Dr. Ralph Hile, Dr. Ver- 

 non C. Applegate, and other members of the Great 

 Lakes fishery investigations, the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, generously provided equipment, 

 technical advice, and aid in preparing the manu- 

 script. Members of the New York State Con- 

 servation Department, especially Dr. U. B. Stone, 

 W. G. Bentley, and Dr. R. M. Roecker, aided in 

 collecting lamprey data; C. W. Lyon, J. P. Galli- 

 gan, Dr. R. D. Suttkus, Dr. R. M. Yerger, and 

 many other associates assisted with the fieldwork ; 

 and Douglas S. Robson gave statistical advice. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SEA LAMPREY 

 IN CAYUGA LAKE 



Prior to 1921, the known range of the sea lam- 

 prey in North America extended from the Mari- 

 time Provinces of Canada southward along the 

 Atlantic coast to northern Florida, and westward 

 up the St. Lawrence drainage into Lake Ontario 

 and four inland lakes in New York State. In re- 

 cent times (1921 and later) this range has been ex- 

 tended westward throughout the Great Lakes. 

 Detailed information on this invasion has been 

 recorded by Hubbs and Pope (1937), Radforth 

 (1944), MacKay and MacGillivray, (1949), Shet- 

 ter (1949), Trautman (1949), Applegate (1950), 

 and Loeb and Hall (1952). 



Early accounts in the literature (Goode 1884) 

 describe the capture of large numbers of sea lam- 

 preys in some New England rivers for utilization 

 as food, and indicate that at one time they were 

 abundant in that region. The sea lamprey is 



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