Ancient lamprey spotted in the wild on South Australia’s Limestone Coast

Conservationists in south-east South Australia say the sighting of a pouched lamprey in local waterways is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. 

The pouched lamprey is native in parts of Australia; but the ancient, toothy creatures are a rare sight in Ewens Ponds, located about 25 kilometres south of Mount Gambier. 

Shaped long and thin like an eel, they are born in fresh water before migrating to the oceans to live out their adult life by latching on to other fish and sucking their blood. 

They then return to fresh water to breed and die. 

National Parks Limestone Coast conservation ecologist Claire Harding said it was not every day you spot one in the wild in the state’s south east. 

“I’ve never seen one during the day and I’ve only ever seen them if we’ve been tracking, surveying and netting for fish,” she said. 

“To see one just swimming around, we grabbed our phone pretty quickly to take a photo as evidence.

After years of being in decline, lamprey have slowly been recovering across the country, including in the River Murray.

In other countries, the fish is popular with anglers and is a culinary delicacy in some European nations. 

Ms Harding said seeing a lamprey was a good sign for local waterways. 

“We know they are sensitive to water quality issues and they need very high flows and a stable temperature environment for spawning,” she said. 

‘Carnivorous parasites’ no risk to swimmers 

Ms Harding said the lamprey spotted at Ewens Ponds was an adult who had likely travelled up Eight Mile Creek from the ocean to spawn in fresh water. 

“Those eggs hatch into larvae and spend about four years in the larvae stage in the muddy sentiments of freshwater bodies,” she said. 

“This is before undergoing metamorphosis, of all things, into an adult and making their way back out to sea to attach themselves to a host fish.”

While the lamprey’s rows of teeth and jawless mouths might be enough to scare some swimmers and snorkellers out of Ewens Ponds, the carnivorous parasites are no danger to humans. 

Ms Harding said the creatures are “gruesomely cool”. 

“The adults, once they’ve returned into the freshwater ecosystem actually cease feeding altogether and they’re subsisting on their body fat until they spawn and then they die,” she said. 

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