Lampreys are scarcely ever heard of, and that might be because the secretive eel-like fish are in decline.
But after many years of searching, scientists are excited to have found the first spawning site ever in the southern hemisphere on Canterbury's Banks Peninsula.
The slippery, slimy creature is known as a water vampire due to its toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth.
"That's the bit that does the business," says NIWA scientist Don Jellyman. "[There's] the rasping mouth, and at the back of the mouth there's a couple of fearsome teeth they use."
Mr Jellyman trapped and tagged a full-grown male with his colleague Cindy Baker while they were searching a stream off the Okuti River hoping to find a lamprey spawning site.
The cluster of eggs they discovered is an exciting discovery, as scientists have been looking for them for years.
"It's a pretty awesome find actually," says Ms Baker. "It's the first lamprey nest to ever be found in the southern hemisphere, so they're very secretive creatures."
Even though lampreys physically resemble eels, they are actually fish, and can grow up to a metre long. They spend time in lakes, rivers and the sea, but are hardly ever seen.
"They're secretive, they come into fresh water and they spend a year or more just hiding out finding a spawning area," says Mr Jellyman. "We just don't see them, so people don't know they're there."
Lampreys are special to Maori as they are a taonga species and a traditional food source. But they are in decline as they die after spawning, and their eggs are often eaten by predators before they've hatched.
"Biologically they're just a curiosity and they're just part of the fauna that we just don't come across very often," says Mr Jellyman.
Mr Jellyman and Ms Baker are part of a group of NIWA scientists who study and monitor lamprey numbers around the country, and in particular the spot on Banks Peninsula where they discovered the eggs.
And now that a spawning site has been found, there is renewed hope for lampreys in New Zealand.
3 News
source: newshub archive
