Word: lamprey
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Soon after she plunged into the water for her record swim across Lake Ontario last summer, Toronto's Marilyn Bell felt a gnawing sensation at her middle. A sea lamprey, one of millions of the slimy, eellike creatures that infest the Great Lakes, had sunk its teeth through her bathing suit, and was trying to attach its bloodsucking mouth to her body. It was as bad a moment as Marilyn had in the whole 21-hour ordeal. "I struck hard at it with my hand," she said later, "and my blow knocked...
...almost deified an attitude of suspended judgment, blind to the fact that while suspended judgment may be possible in matters of opinion or unfinished scientific research, it is not possible on any deeper level of life. We may suspend judgment . . . about the cause of the sudden inroad of lamprey eels in Lake Michigan, but we cannot suspend judgment on whether to steal or be honest, or on whether man is a mechanism or a soul...
Originally a saltwater hunter, the lamprey long since learned to like fresh water, and established itself in Lake Ontario. In 1921 it appeared in Lake Erie, presumably detouring Niagara Falls via the Welland Canal. Step by step it pioneered the Lakes, reaching Lake St. Clair in 1930 and Lake Michigan in 1936. This year, the first lamprey was caught on the U.S. side of Lake Superior...
...Rapids. As lampreys multiply, other fish grow proportionately scarce. First victims are the lake trout, whose small, thin scales cannot resist the lamprey's kiss. In Lake Huron, where lampreys do the most damage, the trout catch last year fell to 41,000 Ibs. (It was 1,750,000 Ibs. in 1939.) Many trout caught showed lamprey scars. When trout get scarce, the lampreys go after rough-scaled perch or even armored sturgeon...
Best anti-lamprey measure would be to drum up commercial demand. Lampreys were once a popular delicacy: Henry I of England is reputed to have died from a surfeit of them. Dr. Van Oosten is checking a rumor that Italians in Bessemer, Pa. are lamprey enthusiasts. If a market can be found, enterprising Great Lakes fishermen will gladly exterminate the lampreys free of charge...