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59-511: The alewife ( Alosa pseudoharengus ; pl. : alewives ) is an anadromous species of herring found in North America . It is one of the "typical" North American shads , attributed to the subgenus Pomolobus of the genus Alosa . As an adult it is a marine species found in the northern West Atlantic Ocean, moving into estuaries before swimming upstream to breed in freshwater habitats, but some populations live entirely in fresh water. It

118-489: A pest in the Great Lakes region as each individual has the potential of killing 40 pounds of fish through its 12–18 month feeding period. The sea lamprey has an eel -like body without paired fins . Its mouth is jawless, round and sucker-like, and as wide or wider than the head; sharp teeth are arranged in many concentric circular rows around a sharp, rasp-like tongue. There are seven branchial or gill -like openings behind

177-557: A pest in the Great Lakes region . Whether it is native to Lake Ontario , where it was first noticed in the 1830s, or whether it was introduced through the Erie Canal which opened in 1825 was not clear as of 2007. The species was first contained to Lake Ontario due to the natural barrier formed by Niagara Falls . However, after the Welland Canal was built in the late 1800s - early 1900s, they were able to bypass Niagara Falls and invade

236-439: A dark peritoneum. The otolith is shaped like a letter "L", unlike its hooked shape in A. aestivalis . Additionally, the eye is larger than that of A. aestivalis ; the width of the eye often exceeds the length of the snout in A. pseudoharengus . Its common name is said to come from comparison with a corpulent female tavernkeeper ("ale-wife"), or, alternatively, from the word aloofe , possibly of Native American origin , that

295-470: A different path to this same goal by introducing sea lampreys to freshwater rivers and lakes of the Connecticut River watershed, and providing easier access around dams and other barriers for the lampreys to reach spawning sites high upstream. After preying on larger fish at sea, the adult lampreys migrate up the rivers to spawn, whereupon they quickly die of natural causes and decompose , thus providing

354-824: A forage fish of the smelt family found in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. In summer, they graze on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin also eat krill and other crustaceans . The capelin move inshore in large schools to spawn and migrate in spring and summer to feed in plankton rich areas between Iceland , Greenland and Jan Mayen . The migration is affected by ocean currents . Around Iceland maturing capelin make large northward feeding migrations in spring and summer. The return migration takes place in September to November. The spawning migration starts north of Iceland in December or January. The diagram on

413-580: A high degree of homing and the fish may make upstream or downstream migrations to reach very specific spawning locations in whitewater canyons. Sometimes fish can be dispersed by birds that eat fish eggs. They carry eggs in the digestive tracts and then deposit them in their faeces in a new place. The survival rate for fish eggs that have passed through a bird's digestive tract is low. Since prehistoric times humans have exploited certain anadromous fishes during their migrations into freshwater streams, when they are more vulnerable to capture. Societies dating to

472-473: A key to immune defense for the growing fish. The idea that these genes play an important role in development against viruses suggests they are critical in the trout's success in an anadromous lifestyle. [REDACTED] Media related to Fish migration at Wikimedia Commons Sea lamprey The sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ) is a parasitic lamprey native to the Northern Hemisphere. It

531-425: A large number of eggs in nests made by males in the substrate of streams with moderately strong current. Spawning is followed by the death of the adults. Larvae burrow in the sand and silt bottom in quiet water downstream from spawning areas and filter-feed on plankton and detritus. After several years in freshwater habitats, the larvae undergo a metamorphosis that allows young, post-metamorphic lampreys to migrate to

590-669: A large role in the destruction of the Lake Superior trout population. Lamprey introduction along with poor, unsustainable fishing practices caused the lake trout populations to decline drastically. The relationship between predators and prey in the Great Lakes ecosystem then became unbalanced. Each individual sea lamprey has the potential of killing 40 pounds of fish through its 12–18 month feeding period. Control efforts, including electric current and chemical lampricides have met with varied success. The control programs are carried out under

649-530: A maximum standard length (SL) of about 40 centimetres (16 in), but have a typical SL of about 30 centimetres (12 in). The front of the body is deep and larger than other fish found in the same waters. Alewife have bronze-colored heads and a grey-blue to greyish green dorsum. A humeral spot is often present. The tongue does not bear teeth. The peritoneum is light-colored with spots to dusky-appearing, an internal feature that distinguishes alewife from blueback herring ( Alosa aestivalis ), which have

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708-465: A scale and duration larger than those arising during normal daily activities. Some particular types of migration are anadromous , in which adult fish live in the sea and migrate into fresh water to spawn ; and catadromous , in which adult fish live in fresh water and migrate into salt water to spawn. Marine forage fish often make large migrations between their spawning, feeding and nursery grounds. Movements are associated with ocean currents and with

767-539: Is Latin for "of the sea". The species is found in the northern and western Atlantic Ocean along the shores of Europe and North America, in the western Mediterranean Sea , the Black Sea , and as an invasive species in the Great Lakes . They have been found at depths up to 4000 meters and can tolerate temperatures of 1–20 °C (34–68 °F). In North America, they are native to the Connecticut River basin in

826-435: Is best known for its invasion of the Great Lakes by using the Welland Canal to bypass Niagara Falls . Here, its population surged, peaking between the 1950s and 1980s to the detriment of many native species of fish. In an effort to control it biologically, Pacific salmon were introduced, only partially successfully. As a marine fish, the alewife is a US National Marine Fisheries Service "Species of Concern". Alewife reach

885-435: Is sometimes referred to as the "vampire fish". In its original habitats, the sea lamprey coevolved with its hosts, and those hosts evolved a measure of resistance to the sea lampreys. It was likely introduced to the Great Lakes region through the Erie Canal in 1825 and the Welland Canal in 1919 where it has attacked native fish such as lake trout , lake whitefish , chub , and lake herring , Sea lampreys are considered

944-502: Is that other aquatic species are also inhibited by this barrier. Fish that use tributaries are impeded from traveling upstream to spawn. To account for this, barriers have been altered and designed to allow the passage of most fish species, but still impede others. The intent of lamprey control programs is a safer habitat and a healthier population growth for vulnerable native fish species such as lake trout. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has taken

1003-627: Is toxic to most fishes in high concentrations, and is usually excreted immediately. Lampreys are able to tolerate much higher concentrations than most other fish and excrete it at extremely high rates, obtained from ingested blood. Trimethylamine oxides present in ingested elasmobranch blood aid in counteracting the detrimental effects of high urea concentration in the lamprey's bloodstream as it feeds. Two presumptive apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC)s expressed in lymphocytes — CDA1 and CDA2 —have been discovered in P. marinus . The genome of Petromyzon marinus

1062-771: The American eel and the European eel which migrate huge distances from freshwater rivers to spawn in the Sargasso Sea , and whose subsequent larvae can drift in currents for months and even years before returning to their natal rivers and streams as glass eels or elvers. An example of a euryhaline species is the bull shark , which lives in Lake Nicaragua of Central America and the Zambezi River of Africa. Both these habitats are fresh water, yet bull sharks will also migrate to and from

1121-462: The Detroit River and Lake St. Clair . They reached their peak abundance from the 1950s through the 1980s. Alewife grew in number unchecked because the lakes lacked a top predator ( lake trout were essentially wiped out around the same time by overfishing and the invasion of the sea lamprey ) For a time, alewife, which often exhibit seasonal die-offs, washed up in windrows on the shorelines of

1180-653: The Great Lakes Fishery Commission , a joint Canada–U.S. body, specifically by the agents of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service . Genetic researchers have mapped the sea lamprey's genome in the hope of finding out more about evolution; scientists trying to eliminate the Great Lakes problem are coordinating with these genetic scientists, hoping to find out more about its immune system and fitting it into its place in

1239-581: The Millingstone Horizon are known which exploited the anadromous fishery of Morro Creek and other Pacific coast estuaries . In Nevada the Paiute tribe has harvested migrating Lahontan cutthroat trout along the Truckee River since prehistoric times. This fishing practice continues to current times, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has supported research to assure the water quality in

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1298-649: The Mystic River . The brook gives its name to the Alewife Brook Parkway and the Alewife Brook Reservation . The Red Line (MBTA) of Boston's T ends at the Alewife station , so the name of this fish adorns the front of every northbound Red Line train. An extensive habitat restoration and education project, combined with a fish ladder with monitoring cameras, is yielding increasing numbers of alewife back in

1357-963: The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Convention does not provide an operational definition of the term, but in an annex (UNCLOS Annex 1) lists the species considered highly migratory by parties to the convention. The list includes: tuna and tuna-like species ( albacore , bluefin , bigeye tuna , skipjack , yellowfin , blackfin , little tunny , southern bluefin and bullet ), wahoo , pomfret , marlin , sailfish , swordfish , saury and oceangoing sharks , dolphins and other cetaceans . These high trophic level oceanodromous species undertake migrations of significant but variable distances across oceans for feeding, often on forage fish, or reproduction, and also have wide geographic distributions. Thus, these species are found both inside

1416-489: The alewife , another invasive species, to explode in population, with adverse effects on many native fish species. The lake trout plays a vital role in the Lake Superior ecosystem. The lake trout has traditionally been considered an apex predator , which means that it has no predators. The sea lamprey is an aggressive predator by nature, which gives it a competitive advantage in a lake system where it has no predators and its prey lacks defenses against it. The sea lamprey played

1475-403: The exclusive economic zones of different nations, and these are covered differently in the treaty from other fish. Salmon and striped bass are well-known anadromous fish, and freshwater eels are catadromous fish that make large migrations. The bull shark is a euryhaline species that moves at will from fresh to salt water, and many marine fish make a diel vertical migration , rising to

1534-845: The high seas . Transboundary stock range in the EEZs of at least two countries. A stock can be both transboundary and straddling. It can be challenging to determine the population structure of highly migratory species using physical tagging. Traditional genetic markers such as short-range PCR products, microsatellites and SNP-arrays have struggled to identify population structure and distinguish fish stocks from separate ocean basins. However, population genomic research using RAD sequencing in yellowfin tuna, albacore, and wahoo has been able to distinguish populations from different ocean basins and reveal fine-scale population structure. Similar population genomics methods have also provided improved insight towards population structure in striped marlin . Some of

1593-764: The phylogenetic tree . Researchers from Michigan State University have teamed up with others from the Universities of Minnesota , Guelph , and Wisconsin , and others in a research effort into newly synthesized pheromones . These are believed to have independent influences on the sea lamprey behavior. One group of pheromones serves a migratory function in that when they are made by larvae, they are thought to lure maturing adults into streams with suitable spawning habitat. Sex pheromones emitted from males are capable of luring females long distances to specific locations. These pheromones are both several different compounds thought to elicit different behaviors that collectively influence

1652-444: The 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) exclusive economic zones and in the high seas outside these zones. They are pelagic species, which means they mostly live in the open ocean and do not live near the sea floor, although they may spend part of their life cycle in nearshore waters . Highly migratory species can be compared with straddling stock and transboundary stock . Straddling stock range both within an EEZ as well as in

1711-442: The Great Lakes between 1954 and 1966 were associated with population declines in certain larger species of zooplankton, while an alewife die-off in 1967 was temporally related to population rebound in most of those species. Alewife populations have seen big declines throughout much of their range . Several threats have most likely contributed to their decline, including loss of habitat due to decreased access to spawning areas from

1770-411: The Great Lakes. Further research and combined use of multiple control methods are needed to forestall future development of resistance. Another technique used in the prevention of lamprey population growth is the use of barriers in major reproduction streams of high value to the lamprey. The purpose of the barriers is to block their upstream migration to reduce reproduction. The issue with these barriers

1829-739: The Great Lakes. Various species of Pacific salmon (first coho , and later the Chinook salmon ) were introduced as predators . Though marginally successful, this led to the development of a salmon/alewife fishery popular with many sport anglers . In spite of such biological control methods, alewife remain implicated in the decline of many native Great Lakes species. It is also a common predator of numerous native and non-native zooplankton taxa (e.g. Bythotrephes longimanus , Leptodiaptomus ashlandi , Limnocalanus spp., Leptodiaptomus minutus , Leptodiaptomus sicilis , and Leptodora kindtii ). Wells (1970) found that increases in population of alewife in

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1888-737: The Truckee can support suitable populations of the Lahontan cutthroat trout. Because salmonids live an anadromous lifestyle, they encounter a larger range of viruses from both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Myxovirus resistance (Mx) proteins are part of a GTP-ase family that aid in viral immunity, and previously, rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) had been shown to possess three different Mx genes to aid in viral defence in both environments. The number of Mx genes can differ among species of fish, with numbers ranging from 1 to 9 and some outliers like Gadiformes that have totally lost their Mx genes. A study

1947-584: The United States, and invasive to the inland Great Lakes and Lake Champlain in New York and Vermont . The largest European populations of sea lampreys are located throughout the southwestern areas of Europe (north-central Portugal, north-northwest of Spain, and west–southwest of France). These countries also support the main fisheries of the species. Sea lampreys are anadromous ; from their lake or sea habitats, they migrate up rivers to spawn. Females deposit

2006-399: The availability of food in different areas at different times of year. The migratory movements may partly be linked to the fact that the fish cannot identify their own offspring and moving in this way prevents cannibalism . Some species have been described by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as highly migratory species. These are large pelagic fish that move in and out of

2065-552: The best-known anadromous fishes are the Pacific salmon species, such as Chinook (king), coho (silver), chum (dog), pink (humpback) and sockeye (red) salmon. These salmon hatch in small freshwater streams. From there they migrate to the sea to mature, living there for two to six years. When mature, the salmon return to the same streams where they were hatched to spawn. Salmon are capable of going hundreds of kilometers upriver, and humans must install fish ladders in dams to enable

2124-481: The building of dams. As with various other aspects of fish life, zoologists have developed empirical classifications for fish migrations. The first two following terms have been in long-standing wide usage, while others are of more recent coinage. George S. Myers coined the following terms in a 1949 journal article: Although these classifications originated for fish, they can apply, in principle, to any aquatic organism. List of diadromous orders and families, and

2183-453: The construction of dams and other impediments to migration, habitat degradation, fishing, and increased predation due to recovering striped bass populations. In response to the declining population trend for alewives, the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Virginia, and North Carolina have instituted moratoria on taking and possession. In eastern Massachusetts, Alewife Brook flows through Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville to

2242-411: The eye. Sea lampreys are olive or brown-yellow on the dorsal and lateral part of the body, with some black marblings, with lighter coloration on the belly. Within their seven-year lifespans, adults can reach a length of up to 120 cm (47 in) and a body weight up t 2.3 kg (5.1 lb). The etymology of the genus name Petromyzon is from petro- "stone" and myzon "sucking"; marinus

2301-650: The fish, the Gaspereau River in Nova Scotia and the Gaspereau River in New Brunswick . Both anadromous and landlocked forms occur. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye (although this latter name is more commonly applied to Hiodon spp.) Adult alewife are caught during their spring spawning migration upstream by being scooped out of shallow, constricted areas using large dip nets . They are

2360-401: The fluidity of the membrane, and higher levels of SFA lead to a decrease in permeability compared to PUFA. Lamprey ammocoetes have a relatively narrow range of salinity tolerance, but become better able to withstand wider ranges of salinity concentrations as they reach later stages of life. Tight regulation of Na/K-ATPase and an overall decrease in expression of H-ATPase assists in regulating

2419-473: The germline DNA from somatic tissues is shed. The genome is highly repetitive. About 35% of the current genome assembly is composed of repetitive elements with high sequence identity. Northern lampreys have the highest number of chromosomes (164–174) among vertebrates. Two genes important to immune function—CDA1 and CDA2—were first discovered in P. marinus and then found to be conserved across lampreys. See §Immunology above. Sea lampreys are considered

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2478-599: The improving Mystic River watershed. The alewife is a US National Marine Fisheries Service Species of Concern, about which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, has some concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available to indicate a need to list the species under the US Endangered Species Act . Anadromous Fish migrations involve movements of schools of fish on

2537-538: The lamprey's internal fluid and ion balance as it moves to areas of higher salinity. Lampreys also maintain acid-base homeostasis . When introduced to higher levels of acids, they are able to excrete excess acids at higher rates than most other saltwater fishes, and in much shorter times, with the majority of the transfer of ions occurring at the gill surface. Sea lampreys parasitize other fishes for their diet, including elasmobranchs such as sharks and rays, which have naturally high levels of urea in their blood. Urea

2596-489: The lampreys to exhibit migratory or spawning behaviors. Scientists are trying to characterize the function of each pheromone, and each part of the molecules, to determine if they can be used in a targeted effort at environmentally friendly lamprey control. However, as of 2017, the most effective control measures still involve the application of (3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol) , or TFM, a selective pesticide, into rivers. As of 2018 no lampricide resistance has been detected in

2655-437: The membrane, changing amounts of components to change the membranes' environment. In some instances, the sea lamprey has adapted to living exclusively in fresh water, as evidenced by the population in the Great Lakes. As the larvae (called ammocoetes ) move towards the oceans, the ratio between saturated fatty acids (SFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the gills shifts towards higher amounts of SFA, as they affect

2714-570: The number of known species: Forage fish often make great migrations between their spawning, feeding and nursery grounds. Schools of a particular stock usually travel in a triangle between these grounds. For example, one stock of herrings have their spawning ground in southern Norway , their feeding ground in Iceland and their nursery ground in northern Norway. Wide triangular journeys such as these may be important because forage fish, when feeding, cannot distinguish their own offspring. Capelin are

2773-521: The ocean. Specifically, Lake Nicaragua bull sharks migrate to the Atlantic Ocean and Zambezi bull sharks migrate to the Indian Ocean. Diel vertical migration is a common behavior; many marine species move to the surface at night to feed, then return to the depths during daytime. A number of large marine fishes, such as the tuna , migrate north and south annually, following temperature variations in

2832-551: The ocean. These are of great importance to fisheries . Freshwater (potamodromous) fish migrations are usually shorter, typically from lake to stream or vice versa, for spawning purposes. However, potamodromous migrations of the endangered Colorado pikeminnow of the Colorado River system can be extensive. Migrations to natal spawning grounds can easily be 100 km, with maximum distances of 300 km reported from radiotagging studies. Colorado pikeminnow migrations also display

2891-661: The preferred bait for the spring lobster fishery in Maine, and are eaten by humans, usually smoked. Alewife are known for their invasion of the Great Lakes by using the Welland Canal to bypass Niagara Falls . Although the United States Department of Agriculture suggests they may be native to Lake Ontario , alewife colonized the other Great Lakes and became abundant mostly in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan . It appears that they had spread from Lake Erie to other Great Lakes by

2950-535: The remaining Great Lakes: Lakes Erie (1921), Michigan (1936), Huron (1937), and Superior (1938), where it decimated indigenous fish populations in the 1930s and 1940s. In its original habitats, the sea lamprey coevolved with its hosts, and those hosts evolved a measure of resistance to the sea lampreys. However, in the Great Lakes, the sea lamprey attacks native fish such as lake trout , lake whitefish , chub , and lake herring , which historically did not face sea lampreys. Elimination of these predators allowed

3009-538: The right shows the main spawning grounds and larval drift routes. Capelin on the way to feeding grounds is coloured green, capelin on the way back is blue, and the breeding grounds are red. In a paper published in 2009, researchers from Iceland recount their application of an interacting particle model to the capelin stock around Iceland, successfully predicting the spawning migration route for 2008. The term highly migratory species (HMS) has its origins in Article 64 of

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3068-488: The salmon to get past. Other examples of anadromous fishes are sea trout , three-spined stickleback , sea lamprey and shad . Several Pacific salmon (Chinook, coho and Steelhead) have been introduced into the US Great Lakes, and have become potamodromous, migrating between their natal waters to feeding grounds entirely within fresh water. Remarkable catadromous migrations are made by freshwater eels. Examples are

3127-406: The sea lamprey occasionally is caught in the rivers of Latvia as well together with river lampreys. Due to its lifecycle that switches between fresh and salt water, the sea lamprey is adapted to tolerate a wide range of salinities . Cell membranes on the surface of the gills are major contributors to ionoregulation . Changes in membrane composition influence the movement of different ions across

3186-448: The sea or lakes, and start the adult hematophagous method of feeding. Some individuals start hematophagous feeding in the river before migrating to the sea, where sea lampreys prey on a wide variety of fish. The lamprey uses its suction cup-like mouth to attach itself to the skin of a fish and rasps away tissue with its sharp, probing tongue and keratinized teeth. A fluid produced in the lamprey's mouth, called lamphredin , prevents

3245-414: The surface to feed at night and sinking to lower layers of the ocean by day. Some fish such as tuna move to the north and south at different times of year following temperature gradients. The patterns of migration are of great interest to the fishing industry. Movements of fish in fresh water also occur; often the fish swim upriver to spawn, and these traditional movements are increasingly being disrupted by

3304-562: The victim's blood from clotting. Victims typically die from excessive blood loss or infection. After one year of hematophagous feeding, lampreys return to the river to spawn and die, a year and a half after the completion of metamorphosis. Lampreys are considered a delicacy in some parts of Europe, and are seasonally available in France, Spain, and Portugal. They are served pickled in Finland. Mostly known for preparing cooked or grilled river lamprey ,

3363-452: Was performed by Wang et al. (2019) to identify more potential Mx genes that resided in rainbow trout. An additional six Mx genes were identified in that study, now named Mx4-9. They also concluded that the trout Mx genes were "differentially expressed constitutively in tissues" and that this expression is increased during development. The Mx gene family is expressed at high levels in the blood and intestine during development, suggesting they are

3422-564: Was sequenced in 2013. This sequencing effort revealed that the lamprey has unusual guanine-cytosine content and amino acid usage patterns compared to other vertebrates. The full sequence and annotation of the lamprey genome is available on the Ensembl genome browser. The lamprey genome may serve as a model for developmental biology and evolution studies involving transposition of repetitive sequences. The lamprey genome undergoes drastic rearrangements during early embryogenesis in which about 20% of

3481-662: Was used to describe this fish in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In southwestern Nova Scotia , alewife are referred to as kiacks (or kyacks). In Atlantic Canada it is known as the gaspereau, from the Acadian French word gasparot , first mentioned by Nicolas Denys . William Francis Ganong , New Brunswick biologist and historian, wrote: Gaspereau, or Gasparot. Name of a common salt-water fish of Acadia (also called alewife), first used, so far as I can find, by Denys in 1672. Nowhere can I find any clue to its origin. It seems not to be Indian. Acadians named two rivers after

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