Parasitic Sea Lamprey, Believed To Have Gone Extinct, Spotted On Netherlands Beach

The sheer diversity of the planet’s ecosystem is something to marvel at and there are many species that may downright feel unearthly to the layman. We look to the stars for extraterrestrial life while our seas and oceans themselves have creatures that are shrouded in mystery. One such organism, which was previously thought to be extinct, was recently discovered on a beach in the Netherlands. The sea lamprey, also known as ‘vampire fish’ due to its nature of sucking blood from its host like a parasite, was discovered by a marine biologist as it was washed ashore on the beach.

According to the Metro newspaper, the evasive marine creature was found on the Dutch island of Texel. The sea lamprey was believed to have gone extinct as it had not been spotted for 6 years. The sea lamprey, which is infamous for sucking and consuming the blood of its prey, was last seen on the island in 2017. The roughly three-foot-long fish is extremely old, say specialists. They are a member of the Agnatha, the oldest class of vertebrates, which predated fish with jaws for more than 400 million years.

The marine biologist was cited as stating, “I always have my eye out when driving on the beach for additional intriguing finds, and I observed a giant eel-like fish lying on the water’s edge when driving past. “I realised it was a sea lamprey right away; they are amazing fish. Although they are fish with no jaws and a disc-shaped mouth filled with teeth, they resemble eels.”

The fish has now been sent to a museum for aquatic creatures. Sea lampreys are primarily found in the spring when they migrate from the sea to freshwater to reproduce, according to museum authorities.

The Welland Canal, which joins Lakes Ontario and Erie and makes up a significant portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway, allowed sea lampreys to enter the Great Lakes in the 1830s. Within ten years, they were able to enter all five Great Lakes, where they immediately began to prey on the lakes’ economically significant fish species, such as trout, whitefish, perch, and sturgeon. After a century, the trout fishery had completely disappeared, partly as a result of the unrestrained growth of lampreys.

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