We went fishing here in MI and caught something unknown

to us. Does anyone have any idea what this thing is that is attached to our fish that we caught? It looked like a fish with a bottom fin the length of the unknown species. The eyes looked black and beady. Any ideas?

lampray or spelled something like that-KILL IT!!!

Yep, a sea lamprey

Well we let it go after I took the picture. Never seen one before. Thanks for the ID.

Oh yes, that is it a sea lamprey. Just done a web search. I will make sure if we get anymore of them while fishing we will kill it. Thanks for the info.

Why are they so bad? I'm just curious, never heard of one before.

They are an accidentally introduced species that is causing havoc with native fish species. A nickname is Sea Hag. They clamp on the side of a fish and eat their way in. Dotti

They almost wiped out Lake Trout populations in tthe Great lakes back in the 70's.
They have finally gotten rid of most of them.

its a fish

ely

Thanks paul and dotti- thats interesting to know. lol ely

susanne

We took the sea hag off the other fish that we caught and the poor fish had an open sore on it from that thing.

Are they a salt water fish?

these are the great lakes-fresh water

I figured it out,here's the link,they are a salt water eel like fish :)
http://www.great-lakes.net/envt/flora-fauna/invasive/lamprey.html
Jody

We caught it near Hastings MI.

They introduced something in several lakes down by St.Louis these are jumping fish,weighting 20-30 lbs. and the jump so high they have knocked people's teeth out,they are huge.They drained several lake,low enough to kill everyone they could find.I think they are taking about putting a bounty on them,I can't remember what they are called.Someone probably took it from their fish tank to the lake feeling sorry for it and had no idea they kill all the other fish.Shame people don't think before they do dumb stuff.Jody

Think you will find that a hag-fish is even nastier looking than a lamprey. If you pull up either when fishing just kill it. They got upstream with locks because they couldn't normally swim against the current.

They live in both fresh water and salt water - something about the breeding cycle but I cannot remember it without going and doing a search.

Are these the ones that can also live out of water for some time?

No, that's a Northern Snakehead, Candee. Those things are nasty! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0702_020702_snakehead.html

Thanks Kim.