sea lamprey
nounDefinition of sea lamprey
: a large anadromous lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) that has a mottled upper surface, is an ectoparasite of fish, and is sometimes used as food
Examples of sea lamprey in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In the Great Lakes, conservationists battle invasive sea lampreys, overfished in their home region of southwestern Europe. — Marion Renault, New York Times, "This Carnivorous Plant Invaded New York. That May Be Its Only Hope.," 13 Aug. 2019 Officials say adult sea lamprey die shortly after returning to freshwater to spawn. — USA TODAY, "Black Hills yaks, serious senioritis on campus, Pony Express: News from around our 50 states," 10 June 2019 To environmentalists, the early grass carp invasion is a reminder of what happened with the eel-like sea lamprey, the parasitic fish responsible for crashing the native lake trout population. — Tony Briscoe, chicagotribune.com, "The Great Lakes could be on the ‘edge of an invasion’ by a little-discussed species of Asian carp," 21 June 2019 The department says sea lamprey spawn each spring in the main stem of the Connecticut River and in many tributaries. — USA TODAY, "Black Hills yaks, serious senioritis on campus, Pony Express: News from around our 50 states," 10 June 2019 Vermont Springfield: The state Fish & Wildlife Department is urging anglers and others not to disturb spawning sea lamprey in the Connecticut River and some of its tributaries. — USA TODAY, "Black Hills yaks, serious senioritis on campus, Pony Express: News from around our 50 states," 10 June 2019 Scientists also are turning to other creative ways to rid the lakes of sea lampreys. — Detroit Free Press Staff, Detroit Free Press, "Scientists on the hunt for blood-sucking sea lampreys in metro Detroit," 22 May 2018 But a quadruple whammy of overfishing, sea lamprey predation, alewife invasion and habitat degradation caused stocks of the lake's top native predator to plummet. — Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Smith: There's no point in rushing when there's a big laker on the line," 28 Apr. 2018 But sea lampreys have a highly repetitive genome, composed of 99 chromosome pairs in the germline, so sequencing data confirming this speculation was difficult to generate. — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, "Odd vertebrate gets rid of hundreds of genes early in development," 28 Jan. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sea lamprey.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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