As with many invasive species, the sea lamprey entered the Great Lakes and found no natural predators, competitors, parasites or pathogens — no natural population controls. The top predators of the existing food web, like lake trout, were particularly susceptible to sea lamprey predation.
One may also ask, do lampreys have predators? Invasive species. Sea lampreys are considered a pest in the Great Lakes region. The sea lamprey is an aggressive predator by nature, which gives it a competitive advantage in a lake system where it has no predators and its prey lacks defenses against it.
In this regard, what animals eat sea lamprey?
Sea lampreys prey on most species of large Great Lakes fish such as lake trout, brown trout, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish, ciscoes, burbot, walleye, catfish, and Pacific salmonids including Chinook and coho salmon and rainbow trout/steelhead.
Why is the sea lamprey a successful predator?
Often, the prey fish do not survive. Because of its parasitic nature, the Sea Lamprey is held responsible for the collapse of lake trout, whitefish, and chub populations in the Great Lakes in the 1940s and 1950s1. The Sea Lamprey has been a successful invader in the Great Lakes for several reasons.
