B2
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Lamprey:
Continued from Page B1
mothlike caddisfl ies from
the water’s surface. The
honey-sweet odor of wispy
cottonwood bloom fl oods
the air. Water cascad-
ing from upstream rapids
masks the sound of nearby
freeway traffi c.
I stand still as a post
where a patch of loose
gravel has collected atop
ancient lava fl ow and watch
a pair of Pacifi c lamprey
wriggle in gentle current.
Named the “night eel”
because of their noctur-
nal behavior and serpen-
tine shape, lamprey lack
the backbone of true eels
that spawn in the Sargasso
Sea. Without paired fi ns to
maneuver and an air blad-
der to stay buoyant, they
are more challenged than a
’49 Ford on a Los Angeles
freeway. What lamprey do
possess, though, is the abil-
ity to navigate rock-faced
falls using their sucking
mouth to grab hold and fl ex-
ible tail to corkscrew up and
over.
Adult lampreys migrate
from the Pacifi c Ocean
from May to September and
“hold over” in mainstem
reservoirs of the Columbia
and Snake Rivers before
spawning the following
year. Their appearance in
Blue Mountain streams
coincides with the spring
migration of chinook
salmon, welcome bloom of
arrowleaf balsamroot and
the joyful song of meadow-
lark.
Both sexes of Pacifi c
lamprey build a nest in
sandy gravel via body
vibrations and by moving
small rocks with their
mouth. After eggs hatch,
Major Lee Moorhouse/Contributed Photo, File
Billy Barnhart’s camp on a bluff above the lower Umatilla River, around 1903, showing “eels”
drying on wooden poles.
the larvae or ammoco-
ete burrow into the river
bottom to feed on micro-
scopic algae for 5 to 7 years.
cover of spring freshets.
Only after they transform
to the young adult stage do
they attach to other fi sh and
the spent carcasses of
sea-going lamprey contrib-
ute ocean-derived nutrients
to tributary streams.
“LAMPREYS THE SIZE OF A SMALL GARTER
SNAKE EMERGE FROM THEIR BURROW
AND BEGIN A LENGTHY, DANGER-FRAUGHT
JOURNEY TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN UNDER
THE COVER OF SPRING FRESHETS.”
During this time, the juve-
nile form has an oral hood,
lack teeth and eyes are
underdeveloped.
Lampreys the size of a
small garter snake emerge
from their burrow and
begin a lengthy, danger-
fraught journey to the
Pacifi c Ocean under the
suck body fl uid and blood
for nourishment.
Adult Pacifi c lamprey
have no value to sport
anglers (except for use as
sturgeon bait). However,
they are part of the food
web for sea lion, white stur-
geon and fi sh-eating birds.
Similar to Pacifi c salmon,
diet and dedication to your
craft can eat up a lot of your
time.
Continued from Page B1
Vassey has been wres-
tling since the eighth grade.
could make wrestling a real When he got to high school,
deal after high school. He he realized he needed to
could wrestle with anyone. work on his strength, and
He was phenomenal for us has spent a good amount of
from Rollie Lane on.”
time in the weight room, in
Vassey’s third-place addition to time on the mat.
“I have to work out
finish at state helped the
Bulldogs secure second several hours a day to
place in the team stand- manage my strength,” the
ings. He fi nished the
6-foot-2, 215-pound
season with a 33-8
Va s s e y
said.
record.
“Usually there are
“When I went
a variety of huge
there, I was expect-
guys, and when you
ing something not as
are in the middle, P
I H t u o b a g n i k l a t y B . you
n o i t have
a c i d to e m
f o up
p l e h
big as it was,” V Vassey
make
said of the state tour-
that diff erence with
nament. “The oppo-
Vassey
strength.”
nents I went up
Vassey typically
against were tougher than wrestled 5 pounds under-
I thought they would be. I weight during the season.
thought it was an honor to With fellow senior Sam
work my way up and get Cadenas moving from 220
there. I was pretty upset to 285, it allowed Vassey to
about losing that one match, slide into the 220 slot.
“I couldn’t have gone
but it was motivation to win
the consolation bracket. You to 285, so my only option
have to go against guys more would have been to go
motivated than you. I made down,” he said. “Being
it to the top three, that was at 220 is better than 195.
pretty awesome.”
Instead of cutting weight,
Larson said Vassey really I was able to maintain my
excelled his senior year.
weight and that made it
“He did ever y thing easier to wrestle. Sam is my
he had to do to be a state No. 1 training partner. We
placer,” Larson said. “Top spar and make each other
three gets eyeballs looking better.”
at you.”
Vassey’s time in the
Vassey plans on major- weight room has benefi tted
ing in nursing at EOU. It’s a him greatly, according to
profession that is important Larson.
to him.
“Our weight training
“My mom (Tiffany program has been pretty
Hodge) is a nursing instruc- consistent for a few years,”
tor at Good Shepherd,” he Larson said. “Emilee Strot
said. “She works hard and and David Faaeteete have
is my inspiration. She’s my really pushed it. Our weight
No. 1 supporter. She has training program is a result
always been there for me.”
of all these kids signing and
opportunities. It’s
It’s a grind every day having
phenomenal. It’s making
Wrestling is not for the women and men in our
faint of heart. Workouts, school much better athletes.”
Coincident with hydro-
electric dam development
in the Columbia River,
numbers of adult lampreys
migrating over Bonneville
Dam declined from 350,000
in the 1960s to 22,000 in
1997. A similar pattern of
decline was observed in the
Snake River after comple-
Saturday, June 4, 2022
tion of the Hells Canyon
complex and the four
lower Snake River dams in
the 1960s. Loss of criti-
cal tributary habitat from
poor irrigation practices,
deforestation, grazing and
treatment with rotenone to
poison “trash fi sh” added
to the toll. That juvenile
lamprey are poor swimmers
and have a bottom-dwelling
lifestyle make them particu-
larly vulnerable to intro-
duced bass, walleye and
channel catfi sh.
Regional Indian tribes
and the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service lead conserva-
tion eff orts to restore runs
of Pacifi c lamprey popula-
tions. Lampreys dried in the
sun or roasted over wood
coals are considered a deli-
cacy by tribal elders. Trans-
location, or placing adult
lamprey in Columbia Basin
streams where populations
were formerly present, has
produced promising results
in several streams, includ-
ing the Umatilla, Yakima,
Methow, Wenatchee and
Clearwater rivers. In some
cases, numbers of returning
fi sh have been large enough
to support a modest subsis-
tence fi shery for tribal
members.
The anthropologist
Eugene Hunn wrote how
Sahaptin-speaking peoples
from the mid-Columbia
intercepted a spawning
run of “eels” during a 19th
century spring root-gather-
ing excursion up the John
Day River. At large falls
such as Celilo and Kettle,
migrating lampreys were
collected off rocks where
they attached to rest. A
tradition of tribal harvest
continues today at Oregon’s
Willamette Falls.
The Wanapum Tribe tells
of an important fi shery near
Pasco, Washington, a loca-
tion referred to as Kosith or
“at the point of land.” Adult
lamprey congregated there,
perhaps confused by fl ow
from three adjacent rivers,
and were caught at night
from canoes by Indian fi sh-
ers who used dip nets made
of hemp. The fl ooded back-
water of McNary Dam put a
stop to that practice.
The Snake River near
Asotin, Washington, was
another traditional harvest
location for Indian fi sh-
ers. An 1892 report of
the United States Fish
Commission described the
occurrence of this revered
“three-toothed” lamprey
as far upriver as Lower
Salmon Falls. Nez Perce
elders still share stories of
catching “eels” as young
children in the Clearwater
River.
Dark clouds loom over-
head. Behind me, on a
shoreline lined with brush
willow, a redwing black-
bird struggles to balance
on a branch that sways with
each gust of wind. A thun-
derstorm is in the works.
Three lamprey as long as
my arm swim into the shal-
low riffl e at my feet and join
the party. One male grasps
a female with his sucking
mouth. Their bodies twist
and intertwine. Eggs and
milt mix their life energy
with the river.
The ancient night eel
has survived against all
odds for thousands of years.
Bearing witness to their
return assures the circle of
life is not broken.
———
Dennis Dauble is a
retired fishery scientist,
outdoor writer, presenter
and educator who lives in
Richland, Washington. For
more stories about fi sh and
fi shing in area waters, see
DennisDaubleBooks.com.
Vassey:
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
www.EastOregonian.com
LeeAnnOttosen@UmpquaBank.com
UmpquaBank.com/Lee-Ann-Ottosen
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