Monday July 21, 2025
ICT News —
Attendees watched carefully as Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission staff pulled a Pacific lamprey out of the bucket and gave it anesthesia. Within six minutes, the medication seeps in and the lamprey is temporarily knocked out. During this period of time, the biologists capture the fish’s girth measurement, check it for injuries, tag if not already tagged and add that information to their database.
The second annual Lampreypalooza offered a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into efforts to protect the Pacific lamprey on July 9 at Bonneville Lock and Dam along the Columbia River. Lampreypalooza originally began as a training session for park rangers, but recognizing its value to the public, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expanded it into an annual event, collaborating with the CRITFC and tribes. The Corps, CRITFC and tribes discussed throughout the event how federal funding is needed to continue to ensure the preservation of the species.
Now, Lampreypalooza features facility tours, live demonstrations and a screening of the documentary “The Lost Fish.” This year marks the second time the event has been held, following its debut last year.
Plans for Pacific lamprey population restoration
Another goal of Lampreypalooza is to educate the public about the Tribal Pacific Lamprey Restoration Plan. Updated in April, the plan, led by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, aims to restore lamprey populations throughout the Columbia River and its tributaries.
Laurie Porter, a citizen of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and Lamprey Project Lead at CRITFC, helped lead the plan when she began her position in 2015. In the most recent update, Porter and other CRITFC staff spent around four years discussing, writing and getting approval by all four Columbia River Tribes to be published. The update includes a policy and a technical document.
“We would meet monthly with the Tribal Technical Working Group and at least quarterly with the policy lamprey committee,” recalled Porter. “And then we took it in front of the CRITFC table, probably four times first to get a sense of what they wanted.”
What is Pacific lamprey?
The eel-like Pacific lamprey is born blind and typically stays near the bottom of the water. Known for being poor swimmers, they don’t swim in the typical way most fish do. Instead, they use their suction-cup-like mouths to attach to surfaces and move by “hopping.” During their juvenile phase they gain sight. As adults, they begin a journey to the ocean, where they latch onto other fish and travel long distances by hitching rides; otherwise known as fish-hopping.
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, there are about 40 species of lamprey around the world. Roughly 25 of these are found in the United States. In the Great Lakes region, species include the chestnut lamprey, silver lamprey, American brook lamprey and northern brook lamprey. On the Pacific Coast, the western river lamprey, western brook lamprey and Pacific lamprey are commonly found. The southern brook lamprey is distributed more broadly across the country.
Dave’y Lumley, a Yakama Nation citizen and lamprey biologist with the Yakama Nation Fisheries, said most people assume that there’s only one type of lamprey.
“There’s a lot of negative imagery about lamprey out due to the sea lamprey on the East Coast, which is also a native species to the East Coast,” she said. “They’re just not supposed to be in the Great Lakes, but they’re featured on media, TV and newspapers, as just being a nuisance species.”
At the event, Lumely was among the demonstrators from Yakama Nation Fisheries showcasing lamprey inside a fish tank, which included both adult and juvenile specimens collected from the Bonneville Dam. At the booth, attendees were invited to touch the lamprey and observe how the fish used suction to attach themselves to the glass. Yakama Nation Fisheries staff also explained the different life stages of lamprey.
Lumley said that the Yakama Nation Fisheries aquarium currently houses two life stages of lamprey: adults and larvae. The larval stage, which occurs before lamprey develops eyes, resembles small, worm-like creatures. After hatching from eggs in freshwater streams, larval lamprey live in large colonies, surviving by burrowing into and feeding from the sediment.
As they grow, juvenile lamprey develop eyes and begin attaching themselves to other fish in a behavior known as fish-hopping. This juvenile stage typically lasts between one and three years. Lamprey reach adulthood around age seven, which is when they are capable of spawning. Pacific lamprey have a lifespan ranging from seven to eleven years.
Pacific lamprey play an important role in the Columbia River ecosystem. They serve as a food source for many other species and help protect salmon populations. Because lamprey migrate to the ocean at the same time as salmon, predators may target them instead, acting as a natural buffer and reducing pressure on salmon.
Cultural impact of Pacific lamprey within Columbia River tribes
Yakama Nation Fisheries was invited to participate in Lampreypalooza, where they focused on educational outreach. Their booth featured laminated slides with information about the lamprey’s life cycle, as well as its traditional and cultural significance.
This was Lumley’s first time attending the event. She said she was glad to be part of it, as it provided an opportunity to educate the public about the role lamprey plays environmentally.
“It’s a great opportunity to talk to people,” said Lumely. “I feel like we get to give a hands-on demonstration with lamprey. Let people actually interact with lamprey up close. It’s a different sensation to feel lamprey, versus just watching them through a window.”
Towards the latter part of Lampreypalooza, attendees came to watch “The Lost Fish: The Struggle to Save Pacific Lamprey.” The film is a 22-minute documentary released in 2013, directed by Jeremy Monroe and David Herasimtschuk about the efforts of Columbia River Tribes to protect and restore the Pacific Lamprey, a misunderstood fish with a history as old as the dinosaurs.
The film opens at the South Fork of the Salmon River with insights from Elmer Crow Jr. of Nez Perce Fisheries. He recalls a moment from 1972 at Cougar Canyon Bridge, where he was salmon fishing. While there, he spotted a lamprey about an eighth of a mile away and began to follow it. Reflecting on that encounter, he shares the question that’s stayed with him ever since:
“It dawned on me – I always wonder, did I see the last one? In the South Fork of the Salmon River?”
The film continues by telling the story of the Pacific lamprey and the efforts of the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama and Warm Springs Tribes to protect both the species and their cultural heritage. Elmer Crow Jr., who passed away in 2013, expressed his deep admiration for the lamprey.
“They are amazing creatures,” he said. “My brother, eel, is quite cool. How they can swim straight backwards, I don’t know. I can’t figure it out. But that’s not for me to know.”
Culturally Pacific lamprey are considered a first food for the Columbia River Tribes and are a part of their creation stories. Harvesting lamprey is a coming-of-age tradition for youth to learn.
“They’re our elders,” said Porter. “They kind of predate all the other fishes and animals. I feel like because they’ve survived so long, they can teach us something. They’re important also for ceremonial subsistence medicinals served at the tables. It’s important that they do not go extinct.”
While Pacific lamprey have served Indigenous communities for hundreds of millions of years, in the last century the population in the Columbia River has been threatened by the overharvesting of non-Natives and by man-made construction, which disrupts the flow of lamprey.
Obstacles
The Bonneville Lock & Dam, constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was the first federally built lock and dam on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The initial phase of the project, including the first powerhouse, a spillway and the original navigation lock, was completed in 1938 to enhance navigation on the Columbia River and supply hydropower to the Pacific Northwest. A second powerhouse was added in 1982, followed by a larger navigation lock in 1993.
“Today, the project is a critical part of the water resource management system that power generation, navigation, water quality improvement, fish and wildlife habitat including fish passage and recreation along the Columbia River,” according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website.
Jacob Macdonald is a fish passage physical scientist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, where he has worked for 25 years. For the past six years, he has focused specifically on fish passage systems. His interest in this field began during his work in hydraulic design, where he studied how water flows through fish ladders, structures that help fish navigate around man-made barriers.
“Historically, fish could swim up ripples and low waterfalls and work their way up the river that way,” explained Macdonald. “But since we built these dams, we need to give them those passable routes past the dams. So a fish ladder provides a lower gradient step-wise way for fish to get up and around a dam.”
He said only about 50% of lamprey successfully make it through the Bonneville Dam. Fish ladders at the dam are designed primarily for salmon, which makes it more challenging for lamprey to navigate them.
Lamprey climb fish ladders by using suction to attach themselves and move upward. According to Macdonald, they can climb up to 20 feet vertically on wet surfaces within the fish ladder. However, they often encounter a 90-degree angle that is too steep for them to pass. After repeatedly attempting to overcome this obstacle, many lamprey eventually fall back into the water.
He is one of the scientists in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now studying how fish move through ladders, with a focus on the challenges lamprey face at the Bonneville Dam. There, the fish ladders are 25-foot-wide channels that can reach heights of 30 to 40 feet in some sections.
CRITFC staff drive to transport lamprey to where they need to migrate along the Columbia River. They are captured in pot traps, which are funnels lined against the fish ladders at the Bonneville Dam. Staff also use box traps, an easier to lift slide that collects the lamprey once inside. From there, the lamprey are placed into buckets filled with water and covered to prevent escape. Then they are taken to be examined and tagged before being released.
“The dams are blocking their passage or delaying their passage so that they’re not making it up, up above each consecutive dam, and enough aren’t getting into the tributaries,” said Porter. “Not enough are getting into the upper reaches of each tribe’s territory. And so this is what we have to do, we have to drive them.”
The tribes and scientists are working together to come up with more solutions.
Financial sustainability for restoration
On the Washington side of the Bonneville Dam is the Washington ladder, which was designed in 2020 and completed in late 2024. This is the first season that the control section of the Washington shore fish ladder is in operation. Notably, it is the first fish ladder control section to be entirely designed from the ground up with lamprey in mind.
“There’s a lot of design features in that ladder section that are solely for lamprey passage and make it easier for them,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald said that over the next few years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and CRITFC plan to collaborate with tribes on projects at all eight core Corps-operated dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The timing of these projects will depend on when additional funding becomes available.
“We’re working closely with our tribal partners to keep that list up to date,” said Macdonald. “As funding opportunities arise, we’re checking things off that list and doing good things for lamprey when we can.”
From 2008 to 2020, Congress allocated $50 million to the project. In 2020 alone, the project received $20 million. This funding comes from federal appropriations managed in Washington, D.C. According to Macdonald, the Corp has used all the current funds available and will need more funding to move forward.
The United States is withdrawing from its commitments to the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement of 2023, as well as the Columbia Basin Fish Accord, which was originally signed in 2008. Both agreements are set to expire this September.
“I haven’t seen any movement on renegotiating that treaty right now,” said Macdonald. “So there is some uncertainty in the funding and authority that the Corps is going to have to continue this work, at least in the short term.”
Macdonald said that in the past, the Corps experienced funding gaps. Between 2018 and 2020, very little federal funding was allocated for lamprey projects. During that time, the Corps and tribes collaborated to refine their plans and prepare for when funding would become available.
Despite funding concerns, Macdonald is confident that the Corps will be able to continue their part of the mission to preserve Pacific lamprey.
“Lamprey have been here for 450 million years,” said Macdonald. “They’ve seen plenty of presidential administrations, ice ages and tectonic movements. And they’ll persist. They’ll still be here.”
Until funding is secured, educational outreach opportunities such as Lampreypalooza are vital to spread the word and share the story of Pacific lamprey. Porter encourages residents in the Pacific Northwest to learn more about them.
“I think lamprey are special,” said Porter. “They should get to know them. They’re all our relatives, and so try to get a connection to them.”