Observation of a Sea Lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, on a Pelagic Blue Shark, Prionace glauca

Joshua K. Moyer^1,*, Jon Dodd², and Duncan J. Irschickr^1,3

¹Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 230 Stockbridge Road, Amherst, MA 01003. ²Atlantic Shark Institute, PO Box 333, Wakefield, RI 02880. ³Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 611 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 27, Issue 2 (2020): N16–N20

Abstract
We report an observation of a Petromyzon marinus (Sea Lamprey) adhering to a Prionace glauca (Blue Shark) in pelagic waters off Rhode Island. We compare our observation of lamprey adhesion to previously published accounts of lamprey parasitism on sharks and aspects of interactions between lampreys and elasmobranchs that warrant further study.

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