News release: Pacific lamprey found in Santa Margarita River, for the first time in decades
“They will recolonize, if we pave the way for them,” said Damon Goodman, former biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Arcata office who is now a regional director in Northern California for CalTrout. If this sounds similar to the Field of Dreams famous quote: “if you build it, they will come,” it is. And it is exactly what happened with Pacific lamprey recolonizing in the Santa Margarita River in Southern California. Found in the river in August 2019 for the first time since last documented in 1940, this is now the furthest south the species has currently recolonized, 260 miles south of the previous location in San Luis Obispo which recolonized in 2017.