It's a gray morning on Lake Ontario when Will Sampson, a sports fishing guide and recreational angler, sees one of the fishing reels on his father's boat jerk. He reels it in. On the other end of the line is a Chinook salmon that he estimates weighs 22 pounds — a great catch, save for one wriggling detail: Latched into the salmon's side dangles a two-foot long sea lamprey, suction-cup mouth clinging on, one eye peeking around its host's fin. In its lifetime, that sea lamprey could kill up to 40 pounds of fish; the hooked Chinook was its latest target.
Here, just off the Toronto harbor front and 27 miles to Niagara Falls, the Sampsons have gotten to know the Great Lakes' infamous eel-like invasive fish well. Out of every 10 big fish they catch, they say usually at least four will have clear signs of a lamprey bite, some with multiple wounds at different stages of healing. For the father-son duo, the lamprey on the morning's Chinook is just another sign that this summer, the blood-sucking fish's population has ballooned.
