Vancouver Lamprey (Lampetra macrostoma): residence description, 2019

Residence

Section 33 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) prohibits the damage or destruction of a species’ residence. SARA defines a residence as

“…a dwelling place, such as a den, nest or other similar area or place that is occupied or habitually occupied by one or more individuals during all or part of their life cycles, including breeding, rearing, staging, wintering, feeding or hibernating;” [s. 2(1)].

The following (the residence statement) is a description of a residence for Vancouver Lamprey.

1 Location of the species’ residence

Vancouver Lamprey construct nests in or near tributary deltas of streams flowing into either Cowichan or Mesachie lakes, or in Cowichan, Bear, or Mesachie lakes themselves. A biophysical description of nest site attributes is found in the first row of table 5 of the action plan for the Vancouver Lamprey. Specific nesting or spawning locations have not been identified in Cowichan Lake, although one location has been identified in Mesachie Lake near the delta of Halfway Creek (Beamish and Wade 2008). The presence of extremely small ammocoetes^{Footnote 1} in tributary deltas in Cowichan Lake suggests spawning or nesting locations are in very close proximity.

2 Structure, form and investment

Both sexes participate in building a nest before depositing and fertilizing eggs. Vancouver Lamprey construct nests by excavating a small depression by vibrating their bodies and carrying individual pebbles short distances using their oral disc.

3 Occupancy and life-cycle function

Adults die following spawning, and fertilized eggs remain in the nest until they hatch. The nests that Vancouver Lamprey construct are therefore considered residences under SARA while they are supporting the essential life-cycle processes of spawning (from mid-May to late August with a peak in mid-June) and subsequent egg incubation.