An ode to the Pacific lamprey

Short Wave

NPR

Nature, News, Astronomy, Science, Daily News, Life Sciences

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2021

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pacific lamprey may have lived on Earth for about 450 million years. When humans came along, a deep relationship formed between Pacific lamprey and Native American tribes across the western United States. But in the last few decades, tribal elders noticed that pacific lamprey populations have plummeted, due in part to habitat loss and dams built along the Columbia River. So today, an introduction to Pacific lamprey: its unique biology, cultural legacy in the Pacific Northwest and the people who are fighting to save it.

To learn more about tribal-led efforts to restore the lamprey, read the Tribal Pacific Lamprey Restoration Plan and watch the documentary The Lost Fish.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Shortwave producer Rebecca Ramirez here with our former intern Indi Kera.
0:10.0	And today we want to start by sharing a story from the Cal Creek band of the Umpqua tribe of Indians
0:17.0	about how the Pacific Lampray traditionally called an eel lost his bones in a betting game with salmon.
0:24.0	The game was one of sticks as your father's play.
0:27.0	Betting on how many robes or fird switches the other holds, the eel who was very lucky won for a long time.
0:35.0	Then he became careless.
0:38.0	He bet recklessly the salmon began to win.
0:42.0	The eel lost all he had won, then he lost all he had of wealth.
0:47.0	When he lost everything, he bet his bones.
0:52.0	Again, the salmon won. That is why to this day, the eel has no bones.
0:59.0	And Kelly Coates knows all about the Lampray's lack of bones.
1:08.0	She's a fishery biologist for and member of the Cal Creek band of the Umpqua tribe of Indians out in Southwestern Oregon.
1:15.0	She says Pacific Lamprays look like eels, but are actually a different fish, only a distant relative of eels.
1:24.0	They've got a pair of eyes, some breathing holes on either side, a little sucker for a mouth, no scales, and no paired fins or jaws, like most fish today.
1:34.0	A very ancient evolutionary blueprint for a very ancient fish.
1:38.0	One of the oldest living fish on earth appearing in the Fossil record about 450 million years ago.
1:44.0	A long gildew gualachadam. The lampray has been important.
1:49.0	Because of this, it has a long, radan, humach dham de bin.
1:55.0	Lampray was our first food.
1:57.0	Intimate history, with many Native American tribes in the Western U.S.
2:00.0	radan, gisnap dham.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.