52 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



middle of the 19th century." But so far as we can learn they were never valued in the 

 more southern part of their American range. For the past half century the Lamprey fishery 

 has been hardly more than a memory, even in New England, except in a small way for 

 local home consumption or to supply the needs of biological laboratories. In salt water 

 they have never been of any commercial importance j the average fisherman might not see 

 one in a lifetime, nor is there any sale for the few picked up by chance. The larvae are 

 taken in considerable numbers for bait, however, in the Susquehanna River, and perhaps 

 in other streams. 



Range. Both sides of North Atlantic; northern Norway; only occasional individ- 

 uals from Iceland;" the Faroes in the east, and southward to Portugal along the coast of 

 Europe, including the North Sea and the Baltic inward to the Finnish Gulf, the western 

 Mediterranean (including Algeria),'" and the Adriatic; also reported for West Africa;'" 

 southern Greenland, Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland in the west, south to 

 Florida; breeding exclusively in fresh water, and landlocked in certain American lakes 



(P-54)- 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. The Sea Lamprey has been listed recently for 

 Greenland,*' where it seems to have been unknown previously. However, apart from this 

 the estuary and southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (reported from Trois Pistoles," 

 Gaspe Basin, Bay of Chaleur and Prince Edward Island) are its northernmost outposts 

 along the American coast,*' the local stock evidently maintained by reproduction in the 

 tributary streams, for Lampreys run up the St. Lawrence for at least 40 to 50 miles above 

 Quebec City." Adults are taken in large numbers also in the Restigouche" and the Mirami- 

 chi, both in the salt estuary and upstream in fresh water during May and June.*' 



Lampreys have never been reported in the rivers of Newfoundland, although these 

 are fairly well frequented by anglers and wardens." But one specimen was taken 1V2 

 miles oflF the Newfoundland coast near St. John (found attached to the bottom of a fishing 

 boat) in November 1946;" one in the U.S. National Museum is recorded for the Grand 

 Banks south of Newfoundland; also a swordfish, scarred by a Lamprey, was taken ofF Cape 

 Breton. Earlier characterization of their presence in numbers along outer Nova Scotia is 

 in line with their presence in the Sackville and St. Marys Rivers, Musquedoboit, Mersey 



77. Abbott, in Cook, Geol. N. J., 1868: 830. 



78. For list of Icelandic records up to 1909, see Saemundsson (Skr. Komm. Havunders. Kbh., No. 5, 1909: 127). 



79. Seurat and Dieuzeide, Bull. Sta. Aquic. Peche Castiglione, 2, 1931 : 83; Algerian record; not seen. 



80. Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 8, 1870: 502. 



81. Nordgaard, K. norske Vidensk.-Selsk. Aarsber., 1924: 65; Jensen, Rapp. Cons, explor. Mer, 59, 1926: loi. 



82. Personal communication from J. L. Tremblay, conveyed to us by A. G. Huntsman. 



83. Bigelow and Schroeder (Canad. Atlant. Fauna, biol. Bd. Canad., 12'', 1934: 4) based its presence on the north 

 shore of the Gulf on the capture of a small Lamprey taken in the upper Bersimis River, a northern tributary to 

 the St. Lawrence estuary (Low, Labrador Peninsula, 1896: 329). However, it was not specifically identified and 

 may have been an Ic/ithyomyzon. 



84. Personal communication from J. L. Tremblay, communicated to us by A. G. Huntsman. 



85. Specimen in U.S. National Museum. 



86. Personal communication from R. A. McKenzie, of the Biological Board of Canada. 



87. Information contributed by A. A. Blair, of the Newfoundland Fishery Research Laboratory. 



