Well, not quite.

But yesterday, while performing my final e-mail check of the Bush Era, I found a link to this story from the BBC about researchers who used a synthetic male sea lamprey pheromone to lure ovulating females into traps. I was happily surprised to find that an MSU associate professor - Weiming Li of Fisheries and Wildlife - led the project, with help from assistant professor Sang-Seon Yun and graduate students Nicholas Johnson, Henry T. Thompson and Cory Brant.

The so-called “vampire fish” were accidentally introduced into the Great Lakes in the late 1800s, the BBC said (though the Great Lakes Fishery Commission says it was in the early 1900s). They latch their sharp teeth onto trout, salmon and other species, and suck out their bodily fluids, often killing the host fish. Lampreys are not only disgusting*, but costly too: they’ve already caused the extinction of three species of whitefish, and it takes about $20 million per year to keep them from destroying outright the lakes’ valuable sport fishery. The researchers said the synthetic pheromone could be a valuable weapon in the fight to eradicate the eel-like intruders.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While Li and his fellow researchers are not affiliated with ESPP, we see GreenBoard as a venue for any MSU-related (or not) environmental work that catches our eye.

* OK, we know, all living things are wonderful in their own way, and we only think they’re repulsive because we don’t know them well enough. But have you seen these slimy nightmares? Ick.

-Andy McGlashen