By Rachael Gleason and Alice Rossignol
Editor’s note: Great Lakes Smackdown! is an ongoing Great Lakes Echo series.
Don’t forget to turn in your brackets before Friday, October 15th. More information here.
It’s time for two of the Great Lakes’ most aggressive invaders to lake fight!
In the right corner we have Sea “The Green Lamp-rey” Lamprey – a loud-mouthed fella from the East Coast. He may be tall and thin, but this eel-shaped fish packs a powerful suck. Don’t let this guy get you in his bite – he’s hungry for blood. He’ll drain your energy and leave you feeling less than whole. He took out Lake Trout without breaking a sweat, so watch out.
And in the left corner, there’s the infamous Round Goby, AKA the “Roundy Goboa.” The only thing this Eastern European exhibition is full of is rage. He eats everything in sight to prepare for a lake fight. And don’t mess with papa Goboa’s family – he’s fiercely protective of his babies.
Fighter Profiles:
Source: USGS Great Lakes Sciecne Center
Sea “THE GREEN LAMP-REY” Lamprey
Legal name: Petromyzon marinus
Home Turf: Atlantic Ocean, New York and Vermont’s Finger Lakes and Lake Champlain
U.S. Fighting Debut: 1830s by way of the Lake Ontario canals and locks
Preferred fighting arena: All five Great Lakes
Agent: Canals and locks
Weight/Size class: 18 to 24 inches
Fighting Skills:
– Primitive and predacious behavior.
– Lampreys latch on to their opponents and suck the life out of them.
– They spend more than a year picking lake fights with unsuspecting fish.
Life Expectancy: From 6 to 20 years
Offspring: Lampreys produce many babies, but they only lake fight as adults.
Source: USGS Great Lakes Science Center
Round “ROUNDY GOBOA” Goby
Legal name: Neogobius melanstomus
Home Turf: Black and Caspian Sea areas of Eastern Europe
U.S. Fighting Debut: 1990 near the St. Clair River
Preferred fighting arena: All five Great Lakes. Greatest numbers are in Lake Erie, Lake St. Claire and southern Lake Michigan.
Agent: Ballast Water
Weight/Size class: 7 inches
Fighting Skills:
– These are ravenous and aggressive fellas.
– Gobies eat zebra mussels, fish, fish eggs and plankton for breakfast… literally.
– When teamed up with elusive Eurasian ruffe, there’s no telling what the damaging duo might do.
– And they don’t fight clean. Gobies steal the bait of fishermen and get away before being caught. They can also suction to rocks using one large fin in fast waters.
Life Expectancy: Up to four years.
Offspring: Produce plenty of healthy offspring in a limited amount of time because egg nests are well hidden and protected by male gobies.
Don’t miss the lake fight tomorrow: Alewife vs. White Perch
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Your secription of the round goby should have included Lake Erie, at least western Lake Erie. They are everywhere and the from what I yunderstand they impact the bass food chain and perhaps help the white perch mulitply?
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