Sea Lamprey of the Chalk Streams

I've been a bit behind on the blog front having been filming for a new TV series for the past few weeks and when i got home i received a phone call from a river keeper on the Hampshire test about a species I've been wanting to photograph for years, the sea lamprey.

Not technically a fish but still classed under chordata, these primitive vertebrates spend most of there lives out at sea feeding off the blood of sharks, big fish and even cetaceans. They are the largest of the three species we have in the UK, Brook Lamprey being the smallest at 6in, River Lamprey the middle one around 10in - 16in (I'm still yet to photograph one of these) and the leviathan from the deeps the sea lamprey reaching a whooping 47in.

Despite its blood thirsty feeding habits they are surprisingly caring lovers with the male moving his mouth up the females back to encourage her to release eggs. I noticed other fish would wait behind the redd looking for dislodged inverts and lamprey eggs such as grayling, mullet and chub.

They don't stick around for long so as soon as i got the phone call i was there the next day in the water, they prefer quit fast moving water so wouldn't recommend going after these guys alone as one slip and i would of been floating down stream for a while!

This is a spent lamprey which is a bit battered and bruised after spawning and will most likely die much like pacific salmon do after spawning. These might not be the most beautiful fish species but i think that are absolutely incredible.

I also shot quite a bit of video of them spawning which I'm saving for something else but here's a exclusive sneak peak at it.

Sea Lamprey Sneak Peak

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

@JackPerksPhoto
Facebook: Jack Perks Photography
Website: www.jackperksphotography.com

Test & Itchen Underwater Photography

Being a Angler & Underwater cameraman both of these chalk streams have been high on my hitlist to film for a while so when the Environment Agency asked me to come down do try and film its fish species i couldn't refuse them!

My main goal was to film Atlantic Salmon but with the chalk streams having a huge range of fish species i had plenty to choose from including a few firsts for me.

My first port of call was to have a snorkel around and work out how spooky the fish are which turned out very! salmon have been with a doubt one of the hardest species to film get on film. this time of year they are just coming out of the sea so very silvery and very alert to danger so when a 6ft long water monkey like myself comes along they flee!

One species that i was glad to see plenty of was eels! not to everyones tastes but they have declined by 95% in the last 50 years and a vital fish to our rivers. i was happy to find them all over the rivers from pencil thinkness to 3ft long!

a slightly lesser known cousin of the salmon is the sea trout which is basicully a brown trout that goes to sea. these out numbered the salmon around 10 - 1 and tended to come into the river to feed rather then breed at this time of year.

After three days and much hard work i got my footage of the salmon which i was very pleased with. unlike the pacific salmon the atlantic don't all die with around 20% returning to the sea to spawn again on a later date.

Heres a video of the salmon & sea trout