Environment

True — Freaky Sea Lampreys Will Become Pie for Queen Elizabeth

DETROIT (The Blaze/AP) — One country‘s dreaded invasive species will soon become the main ingredient in a pie for another country’s monarch. A few unwanted, invasive sea lampreys from the Great Lakes have been shipped to England for use in a traditional pie for Queen Elizabeth II.

The Detroit Free Press reports the City of Gloucester, which has given the pie as a gift to the monarch since the Middle Ages, requested the eel-like creatures from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission because they’re a protected species in England. The pie is for June’s Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of the queen’s ascent to the throne.

Invasive Great Lakes Sea Lamprey Shipped to England for Traditional Pie Gifted to the Queen

(Photo: Susan Tusa/Detroit Free Press)

(Related: Creepy video: Sea lampreys wildly freak out at the ‘smell of death’)

Commission spokesman Marc Gaden shipped 2 pounds of frozen lamprey from Lake Huron. Great Lakes officials are all too happy to provide the invasive blood-sucking species to anyone who requests them. Gaden said he would “would prefer to send them truckloads of lamprey.”

The Daily Telegraph has more on “sea lamprey pie”:

Ivan Day, a food historian and broadcaster, said: “They were a great delicacy in medieval times but with urbanisation and industrialisation we have lost touch with many of our culinary traditions.

“They are often compared to eel and because they are cooked in their own blood they have lost popularity, but I think they taste very nice especially if caught fresh.”

Xanthe Clay, The Daily Telegraph’s food columnist, said it was a shame that they were not locally sourced but that being from the sea they would probably taste better.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that sea fish tastes better than river fish which always has a muddy taste. I would think the Queen is likely to find them much nicer.”

Whether the Queen has ever sampled the pies she has been sent by Gloucester city council for earlier Jubilee celebrations is doubtful.

Invasive Great Lakes Sea Lamprey Shipped to England for Traditional Pie Gifted to the Queen

Sea lampreys have been harming native fish in the Great Lakes. Here are two pictured sucking on a trout. (Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Lampreys got into the Great Lakes through Atlantic shipping canals in the 1920s and have threatened native fish since.

Featured image: EPA

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