Re: NANFA-- Re: lamprey attack

Joshua L Wiegert (jlw_at_dune.net)
Fri, 20 Feb 2004 23:43:30 -0500

As weird sounding as this is, I"m afraid its not that unusual.... it happens
all the time, especially when lampreys reach high population densities or
when food is very scarce. THey're opportunistic predators, and if they're
hungry enough, they'll attack anything -- including a human being. Human
beings in the water are pretty unusual -- they're much more likely to happen
upon a fish or a marine animal... in which case we'd never hear of it.

Up here, where the Sea Lamprey is a problem in teh Great Lakes and Champ,
before the use of lampricides, they were so common as to be problematic.

--
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Joshua L. Wiegert
AIM UID: JoshuaWiegert                     ICQ UIN: 276060292
Feel free to contact me by any of the above means for any reason.
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "njz" <njz_at_clevelandmetroparks.com>
To: "matt coburn" <matttcoburn_at_hotmail.com>
Cc: "NANFA" <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 10:26 PM
Subject: NANFA-- Re: lamprey attack




> Hi Matt, that is a very interesting and unusual story.  I will forward it
to
> our list server to see if anyone would have any comments that they would
> like to share.  Thanks for looking us up.
>
> Nick Zarlinga
>
>
> "If we ignore nature.....maybe it'll go away."
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "matt coburn" <matttcoburn_at_hotmail.com>
> To: <junk1_at_fish.la.asu.edu>
> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 8:37 PM
> Subject: lamprey attack
>
>
> > Hi ,
> > My name is Mat Coburn. I had done a google search this morning on
'Lamprey
> > attacks on humans' and stumbled over some conversations about the
subject
> > linked to your site. Well the reason why I curious about this is that
last
> > night toward dusk my girlfriend and i went for our usual 2km swim on a
> > friday evening off mornington pier, melbourne, Australia where she was
> > attacked by one. We had swam down the beach to a yellow buoy parallel to
> the
> > beach away from the jetty,  turned and came back to the jetty. On the
> > leeward side of the jetty and breakwater, is a small harbour with
several
> > commercial and sailing boats moured. It was within the boundariy of the
> > harbour where Crissy was attacked by a lamprey. She was swimming without
a
> > wetsuit and it had attached itself  to her outer thigh.Crissy had felt
> > something interfer with her freestyle kick as it finally attached itself
> to
> > her upper outer side of her leg. She immediately grabbed it and wrenched
> it
> > off her leg tossing it across the surface of the water.It wriggled in
her
> > hand . At this time i was getting out of the water and Id looked back at
> > Crissy who was not far behind me. She was understandably upset and cryed
> > from the shock of it as she got out at the boat ramp. There was a
circular
> > abrasion mark about the size of a twenty cent piece with blood leaking
out
> > of three parallel cuts within the circle of the abrasion. I am a
qualified
> > marine biologist and am amazed at what has happened. I never have heard
> that
> > lampreys would do this.I am keen to go back to the area of the harbour
on
> > scuba to see if i can locate one..There is a place 40 km away where i
know
> > lampreys move up the Bunyip River to breed amongst the course sand. You
> can
> > stand Barefoot on the sand in this sand and disturb them and catch one.
> The
> > local kids have shown me this. Years ago I'd caught three of them, and
> > observed them in a fish tank. I had baited them with my arm but they
were
> > not interested. Well, its saturday morning 10.55am and Crissy is still
> > sleeping it off! I will find a good camera to take a photo of the wound.
> My
> > email address is matttcoburn_at_hotmail.com. Please reply.
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Hot chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to
> > http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilemania/default.asp

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/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org