The Ancient "Vampire" That Drains Fish Alive!

[00:00:00]It has no jaw, no bones, [music] and a lineage older than the dinosaurs. But hidden inside its circular face is one of the [music] most destructive hunting tools in the natural world. This is the sea lamprey, >> [music] >> the ultimate underwater parasite. Native to the Atlantic Ocean, this creature is a biological horror story. It doesn't hunt by biting chunks of meat. Instead, it relies on an oral suction disc [music] lined with curved orange teeth.

[00:00:25]It latches onto a host fish with a death grip, >> [music] >> then uses a specialized file-like tongue to rasp straight through scales and skin. To keep its meal [music] flowing, the sea lamprey secretes a powerful anticoagulant chemical directly into the wound. This keeps the host blood from clotting, allowing the lamprey to slowly [music] drain the fish of blood and fluid for hours or even weeks at a time.

[00:00:47]In its native ocean environment, ocean hosts [music] are large enough to survive. But in the 1920s, these invaders found a way into the North American Great Lakes, and an ecological [music] disaster began. Freshwater fish like lake trout and whitefish had [music] never co-evolved a parasite of this size. The results were devastating. Only one out of [music] every seven attacked fish survives a lamprey encounter. By the 1960s, the sea lamprey [music] population exploded, completely decimating the Great Lakes fishing industry [music] and causing commercial catches to plummet by a staggering 98%.

[00:01:22]>> [music] >> Part of their terrifying efficiency lies in their life cycle. They spend up to 10 years buried safely in stream silt [music] as harmless worm-like larvae.

[00:01:31]But once they undergo metamorphosis, they grow functional eyes, a [music] mouthful of spikes, and hit the open water with a vengeance. A single juvenile [music] lamprey can destroy up to 40 lb of fish during its brief 12-to-18-month feeding [music] frenzy.

[00:01:45]Today, intense chemical and physical control programs have managed to reduce their Great Lakes population by 90%. Yet this jawless [music] ancient survivor remains a living testament to how a single alien predator can rewrite an entire [music] ecosystem's rules. Don't forget to like and subscribe to Ocean Unknown Mysteries for more secrets from the deep.