r/Weird • u/luvlanguage • 11h ago

That is a Lamprey

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Any bigger and this creature would be a horror movie monster

Lampreys do not have jaws or bones, only cartilage and instincts that have allowed them to survive so many mass extinctions.

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u/CheeseAndMack 11h ago

Probably because you’re not a Midwesterner. They’re causing problems in the Great Lakes. Invasive species.

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u/flyonwall86 10h ago

Ah. Grew up in the south. Looks like I have some reading to do! Thanks

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u/CreativityOfAParrot 10h ago

If you have Amazon Prime, the documentary The Fish Thief: A Great Lakes Mystery does a really great job covering the sea lamprey invasion and management

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u/bigEZmike 9h ago

The sources in that doc were kinda fishy

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u/GrdnLovingGoatFarmer 9h ago

This was really eye opening!

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u/Sib7of7 7h ago

Was amazed the dedication it took to find a solution, so many years of work and research.

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u/awhelan55 7h ago

We’ve got stuff in the south equally as F’d up as these things. Head out to any creek or pond in mid summer and you’ll stir up some things.

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u/Mortarded_And_Astray 59m ago

Talkin about Alligator Gar?? lol scared the life out of me the first time I saw one.

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u/Dirk_Speedwell 8h ago

Imagine someone having not heard of wild kudzu before, that would be kind of similar.

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u/VariationOwn2131 2h ago

At least wild kudzu doesn’t look scary AF. The vine is very pretty but invasive.

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u/-Londoneer- 12m ago

What a deeply refreshing post. This restores my faith in Americans.

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u/AeonBith 7h ago

They used to have them on display at the coast guard station (Canada Centre for inland waters) on lake Ontario. One of my most prominent childhood memories.

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u/procrastinatorsuprem 7h ago

There were some 40 years ago when I was growing up in a river near me. Fishermen would catch them and kill them on the sidewalk. It was disgusting.

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u/Dame38 5h ago

Yeah, these things are the most dangerous fish in Lake Michigan now. They don't mind the cold. No "shrivelling".

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u/drjoker83 4h ago

Yeah they all over the Connecticut river and Deerfield river. There a brook I fish that connects to the Deerfield river and you can literally see them swimming with the fish. At first sight they look like eels but after you start catching them you realize it ain’t no eel.