The Story of Two Fish

Most people are familiar with birds and butterflies, but what about fish? Scientists call fish that live part of their life in freshwater and part in seawater, “anadromous”. The Connecticut River is home to several anadromous fish and two if the more interesting are the Sea lamprey (Peromyzon merinus) and the American shad (Alosa sapdissimus). Each of these fish is born in upstream areas of the Connecticut River and its tributaries, then travel to the ocean to grow. When they are mature, they go back to their birthplace in the river to spawn, or produce young.

The Sea lamprey could easily be the most misunderstood fish in the river. Make people mistake them for eels because of their long snake-like bodies. The Sea lamprey descends directly from the prehistoric jawless fish that swam the earth over 280 million years ago.

Another common misunderstanding is about their lifestyle. While living in the ocean, a lamprey will attach itself to another fish and become a parasite. But by the time the lamprey returns to the rivers where they were born, they are no longer feeding and have become blind and very weak. Once they have spawned the drift off in the current to die. For this reason, their reputation was a “fish killer” in freshwater is undeserved.

The American shad, a more popular sfish to some people than the Sea lamprey, has been the subject of many festivals up and down the Connecticut River. It is considered a good tasting fish (its Latin name “sapdissimus means good tasting) and is a popular sport fish to anglers. Since it only returns once a year to its birth waters of the Connecticut River to spawn, when the shad are “running”, the fishermen come running too!