Sea lamprey

April 8, 2023

This ‘vampire fish’, as it is called due to its nature to extract the blood of its prey, was discovered on the Dutch island of Texel.
They belong to the oldest group of vertebrates, the Agnatha, which existed more than 400 million years ago before there were fish with jaws.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US government agency, sea lamprey is a parasitic fish native to the northern and western Atlantic Ocean. It is often confused with eels.
Unlike other fish, lampreys lack scales, fins, and gill covers and their skeletons are made of cartilage.
The lampreys attack fish to suck the blood out using their sucker-shaped mouth.
NOAA said the fish uses its rough tongue to rasp away other fish’s flesh so it can feed on its host’s blood and body fluids.
It further said that one sea lamprey kills about 40 pounds of fish every year.