Lamprey sighting

Photo: Cynthia Boshell

The highlight of the week was a trip to Bonneville Dam, where I had a nice surprise: Lamprey were attached to the viewing window!

If the lamprey population was healthy, there would have been thousands covering the window. As it is, I felt very fortunate to see the few shown here in the photo.

The lamprey passage facility is simple and effective. It consists of a pvc pipe to which lamprey attach and work their way over the serpentine salmon passage. This was a very instructive field trip.

Finding data for lamprey habitat is quite challenging because although lamprey are critical to the health of the Columbia Basin fresh water and salt water ecosystems, they have been neglected in scientific studies. However, I am making headway. On Monday our team gave a project report to our senior mentors, Antonio Baptísta and Phil Rogers, who were happily surprised to find that we are moving right along.