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00:00My name's Mike Rowe, and this is my job.
00:06I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty.
00:10Before I start up the machine, I have to go inside and clear up.
00:13I'd be happy to help you.
00:15Oh, yeah.
00:15I know you were good for something.
00:18Hard-working men and women who earn an honest living.
00:21How many times does a horse poop a day?
00:22It's like 50 to 60 pounds worth.
00:25I wish I could poop 50 pounds in a day.
00:27Doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
00:35Now, get ready to get dirty.
00:41Coming up on Dirty Jobs, on a wild river, I come face-to-face with the mighty sea lamprey.
00:48Like salmon.
00:49Like salmon.
00:49Only so much uglier.
00:51Oh, damn it.
00:53It just peed on me.
00:54And later, at a shark aquarium, I get hands-on experience with squid.
00:59You can put a squid on your finger.
01:02Have you ever done that before?
01:03I haven't.
01:04You're the first one who's done that.
01:06It's a big day for everybody.
01:07Okay, so the jobs are a little fishy.
01:10This is like some jacked-up game show.
01:12Well, so what?
01:13The whole show's a little fishy.
01:14So if there's some kind of incident inside, what do we do?
01:18Just run out?
01:19Screaming.
01:24Oh, God.
01:36This is Mike Toohey.
01:37We're standing here with our hands on our hips because we mean business.
01:40We're going to be doing stuff to lampreys.
01:42Sea lampreys.
01:43Yes, and Mike is with the Department of Wildlife.
01:47No, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
01:48I get it wrong every time.
01:49Didn't it used to be Fish and Game?
01:51No.
01:52Okay.
01:52The federal government is here in the Great Lakes region, has been for a long time,
01:56and you've been doing a very specific set of things to these sea lampreys.
02:00That's right.
02:01I want to learn about the things you're doing to them, but I also want to meet one up close
02:04and personal,
02:05and it looks like that's one.
02:06Okay.
02:07That's a sea lamprey.
02:09This is another glove, too, so I think I will avail myself.
02:12Well, that's a nasty-looking little piece of business, isn't it?
02:14Yeah, and there's the business end right there, the teeth.
02:18Is that its butt or its mouth?
02:20That's its mouth.
02:22You know you're having a bad aesthetic day when the first thing you ask is butt or mouth.
02:29So they're very ancient fish, but well-evolved for what they do.
02:33What do they do?
02:34They feed off of other fish.
02:37They attach to them with that suction mouth and then use those teeth and the rasping tongue
02:43to cut a hole in the side of the fish, and quite often the fish will die.
02:49Well, sure.
02:49They kill over 50 pounds of lake trout in the Great Lakes in their lifetime, and there's a lot of
02:56these out there.
02:57This is obviously why a trout has no hope.
03:01That's right.
03:02This one's dead?
03:03This one's dead.
03:04This one's caught by a commercial fisherman, and you can see the wound that the lamprey made on it.
03:09So we, uh, there's a lamprey swimming in the river right there.
03:21Let's see if I can grab it, Mike.
03:23Yeah.
03:25Yeah, we give a reward for that.
03:28All right, I'm all about the reward.
03:35We got him.
03:37The slippery son of a gun.
03:39Crap.
03:41Very, very slick.
03:44Very slick.
03:45You almost got the reward, but not quite.
03:47What was the reward?
03:48I think we used to give fishing lures to people who brought a lamprey in.
03:52It's this close to a lure.
03:54Okay.
03:55Well, then back to our bucket.
03:57How long has this beautiful creature been inhabiting your lakes?
04:02They got in to the upper Great Lakes probably in about after the 1920s,
04:08when they improved a canal that gets fish around Niagara Falls.
04:15Right, right.
04:15Now, prior to the, uh, to the canal being in there, Niagara Falls, I assume, was a natural
04:21barrier to this kind of thing, right?
04:22Yeah, these guys couldn't get up Niagara Falls, but, uh, once they improved the shipping
04:27canals, yeah, they infested the upper Great Lakes pretty quickly, took over, and decimated
04:31fish populations.
04:32We've got about $7 billion of economic activity due to the fishery up here, and once these
04:38guys got in, that was, uh, really in peril.
04:41Lots of fish species disappeared.
04:43Are you saying that without the efforts of your organization, roughly $7 billion of total,
04:51uh, Great Lake associated revenue would, would simply not be present?
04:55That's right, uh, the people you see today are doing that work, that's correct.
05:00Well, it's official.
05:01Mike Toohey is a very important person, and, uh, his entire organization is doing some
05:05very important work.
05:06Back to you, who are those people back there?
05:09Those are, uh, Electrofishers.
05:14So, I put my sea lamprey microphone back into the bucket, and I set out to meet the Electrofishers.
05:21Mike tells me the Electrofishers' work is a small part of a big plan to eradicate the
05:26sea lamprey from the Great Lakes area.
05:32Mike?
05:33Margie?
05:33Margie, right.
05:34Lynn?
05:35Hi, Lynn.
05:35How are you?
05:36Good.
05:37I'm going to stand right over here.
05:39Okay.
05:39A thorn between two roses.
05:42Um, okay, so, yeah, electricity's on your back, and we're working in water.
05:50Yep.
05:50Seems weird.
05:51Why is that okay?
05:52There's two switches.
05:54One switch, um, puts out a pulse of electrical current in the water, so basically that tickles
06:00the larval sea lamprey out of the silt.
06:03As soon as you see them, you hit the high pulse, and that gives us a consistent current of 125
06:10volts, and it just kind of stuns the lamprey in their tracks.
06:13So we're not looking to kill them.
06:14We're looking to stun them.
06:15Just, yeah, just stun them and pick them up and put them in your bucket so we can see
06:20what's here.
06:21All right.
06:21So this is officially called a paddle.
06:24Yep.
06:24This is your negative electrode.
06:26Negative electrode, okay.
06:28And that's your positive.
06:29Yes.
06:30So, I mean, do you want to buckle yourself?
06:33Yeah.
06:33Well, I mean, what are my options?
06:35Like, could you buckle me?
06:36No.
06:37Because if I get to choose, I'm going to go ahead and have you buckle me.
06:42Is that high enough up on your hips?
06:44Yeah.
06:44You don't want it riding on your shoulders.
06:46It should just be so the weight's not on your shoulders.
06:49Not on the shoulders, on your hips.
06:50Yeah.
06:50Plus you want to look good.
06:51Yes.
06:52Yeah.
06:53So is that good for you?
06:55It's good for me.
06:56How was it for you?
06:57It's pretty good.
06:58Sweet.
06:58Sweet.
06:59So if you want to just go ahead and turn them on.
07:02Well, I did that already.
07:03I'll say.
07:10Oops, you touched your paddles.
07:12What did I do?
07:12Oh, crap.
07:13I'm going to die.
07:15No, you're not going to die.
07:16It just turned itself off.
07:18Okay.
07:18And now we'll just reset it.
07:20Don't touch the paddles.
07:21Yep.
07:26Daggone it.
07:28They're quick.
07:29Yeah, they are.
07:30Did you get them?
07:30I got mine.
07:31Oh, well, how about that?
07:32I got mine.
07:34All right.
07:35All right.
07:39Nice catch.
07:43So, the goal is to have less lamp rays in the river, in the lake.
07:49In the Great Lakes, yeah.
07:50So, why do anything with them other than, well, kill them when you capture them?
07:59Um, that's a good question.
08:02Um, I...
08:05We have multiple control methods.
08:07Yeah.
08:08Margie and Lynn tell me the goal of electrofishing is to determine how many baby sea lampreys are in the
08:14stream.
08:15If there's a lot, then the stream is bombarded with TFM, a poison that kills baby sea lamprey, but is
08:21harmless to everything else, including humans and other fish.
08:26Between your legs.
08:27Doggone it.
08:28Got it.
08:29You got it?
08:29With your bare hands.
08:30Yeah.
08:31Show off.
08:33TFM is an expensive chemical, so they want to get a high kill rate per gallon.
08:38That's why Margie and Lynn's electrofishing survey is important.
08:42Wow.
08:42They're pretty quick.
08:44There you go.
08:45Yeah, you got one.
08:47About time.
08:49Oops, there's a lamprey spawning right there.
08:51Two adults.
08:53Oh, yeah.
08:53Look at them.
08:54Sucking on a whiskey bottle.
08:56I don't blame them.
08:57They just spawned.
08:58Yeah.
09:00So, he's digging a nest there?
09:01Yep.
09:02Believe it or not, sea lampreys aren't all bad.
09:05When they mate, lampreys clean out stream bed sediment.
09:09Well, now they're mating.
09:11And when they die after spawning, their decomposing bodies provide valuable ocean micronutrients to tiny plants and animals that live
09:19in streams.
09:20There you go.
09:21Not a lot of romance in the river.
09:23Yeah.
09:23But this native of the Atlantic Ocean becomes a problem when it moves to the waters of the Great Lakes,
09:28where it outcompetes the local fish.
09:30Damn it.
09:32Lamprey just peed on me.
09:34Or is that eggs?
09:35Those are eggs.
09:36Oops.
09:36Oh, really?
09:37Yeah.
09:38Just spawned all over me.
09:39Yep.
09:40Bad fish.
09:41No, there's nothing there.
09:42No, they're very tiny.
09:44Very tiny.
09:44You can see.
09:45Kind of on your arm here.
09:47Really?
09:48I have tiny lamprey eggs on my arm hair?
09:49Yep.
09:50This is another sentence I didn't think I'd ever utter.
09:54So, that's stage two?
09:56Yeah.
09:56Stage two.
09:57Adult assessment.
09:58Adult assessment.
09:59All right, so we've captured our larvae and now we're going to go assess the adults.
10:03Here.
10:04Yes.
10:05It's going to be up here by the truck.
10:07What?
10:08We're going against the current.
10:09Might take a while.
10:11Coming up.
10:12They might get a little feisty, too.
10:13Well, why wouldn't they?
10:14I learn why male sea lampreys have great pride.
10:18A male gets gonad from one end to the other.
10:21Oh, dear.
10:23Troy, there's something on your lens.
10:25And later, in Las Vegas, I play the hottest new game on the strip.
10:30A little thing called, drop the dead fish in the blender.
10:34Oh, look at that.
10:35You dropped right in.
10:36It's surprising, stinky, and fun for the whole family.
10:40Good job.
10:41Good job.
10:48So we're back now at the, what's this called, Mike?
10:50This is a barrier on the Akiak River.
10:53At the Akiak River barrier.
10:55And you're Sarah?
10:56Yes.
10:57Reiter.
10:58Sarah Reiter.
10:59What do you do here?
10:59I am a biological science technician, and I check the trap.
11:03So this is obviously a lamprey trap?
11:06This is a trap.
11:07And so what happens, lampreys swim up the river.
11:10They just, they got one thing left to do in life, and that's spawn.
11:13Like salmon.
11:14Like salmon.
11:15Only so much uglier.
11:16So much uglier and more harmful to the Great Lakes.
11:19Yes.
11:19So when they get here, they encounter this barrier.
11:22The barrier we built to stop them from infesting the upper river.
11:27They can't jump over that, whereas some other jumping species like salmon can.
11:33And so they look for holes.
11:35We provided a couple here that are actually a trap.
11:39They swim into that trap and they're captured.
11:41We are going to remove the lampreys from the lamprey trap.
11:44That is correct.
11:45And then we're going to take them somewhere.
11:46Yep.
11:46To the sterile male facility.
11:48We're going to sterilize them.
11:50We're going to sterilize the males.
11:51There's males and females in here.
11:53But we're going to sort those back at the lab.
11:56Okay.
11:56But Sarah's going to show you what to do.
11:58You're going to climb right in there with hundreds of lampreys.
12:01That sounds super.
12:02Sarah, after you.
12:06Now, obviously, I'm going to step on a few of these.
12:09Yep.
12:10Tread lightly.
12:11All right, lampreys.
12:12I'm coming in.
12:14They might get a little feisty, too.
12:16Well, why wouldn't they?
12:17I'm coming in.
12:18I'm coming in.
12:20I'm coming in.
12:21I'm coming in.
12:26I'm coming in.
12:35I'm coming in.
12:36I'm coming in.
12:39Troy, there's something on your lens.
12:59Oh, sorry, Doug.
13:04Do you have any affection for these things when you think of them?
13:07Not really.
13:08No, me either.
13:15Okay.
13:16Okay.
13:17We'll put these away and now you can climb out of the trap.
13:20Sounds good.
13:24Look at them all stuck to the side.
13:26The lampreys we captured are now on their way to the Hammond Bay Biological Center,
13:30where the mysteries of adult sea lamprey population control will finally be revealed to me.
13:40We will now take these out and put them somewhere?
13:43Yeah.
13:43We're going to take the animals out, but we're going to have to do a couple of things.
13:47One, we're going to run them through this device here.
13:50It's a tag detector.
13:52Some larvae and adult lampreys out in the lake at various times have been tagged
13:58with a tiny little sliver of metal that is etched with a code at various times and released
14:04to give us information on their habits and so on.
14:07Very helpful in trying to figure out how to best control them.
14:10And so about maybe one in every thousand lampreys might have one of these tags in it.
14:14We then have to sort the animals by gender.
14:17So the males are going into the building to sterilize.
14:21We can't walk them in.
14:22We're going to shoot them through that cool little tube there.
14:24The females will put in this tank right here.
14:26What will they do?
14:28We use them for research.
14:30The ones that we don't use in research go to biological supply houses.
14:34They provide them to educational institutions for dissection and so on.
14:38We're not doing any dissecting today?
14:40We're not looking at its digestive system or anything like that.
14:45I am curious.
14:46I wouldn't mind having a look at that.
14:47Actually, there's not much in there.
14:49At this point, they've stopped feeding and their digestive system has all atrophied.
14:53It's gonad from one end to the other.
14:56Oh, dear.
14:57Wall-to-wall gonad?
14:58Wall-to-wall gonad.
14:59Yeah.
15:02Where it's digestive...
15:03The gonad's in the digestive system or it's just...
15:06The entire body cavity has been filled up with either eggs or sperm and there's no digestive tract left.
15:13There's no room for food because...
15:15They don't eat anymore.
15:16They're living off the lipids that they've accumulated over the previous 18 months.
15:21Their passion.
15:22They're living off their passion.
15:23That's right.
15:23Weird.
15:24Okay.
15:26Shall we?
15:28Or shall I?
15:30Whose were these?
15:32I don't know, but they look good on you.
15:34No, man.
15:34I think these are Sarah's.
15:37These are extraordinarily feminine.
15:43But they do work.
15:45My polarized is nice.
15:47All right.
15:48So, uh...
15:48Is that right there?
15:50Scoop and dump.
15:51Yes.
15:53Sea lampreys are sometimes called lamprey eels, but they are not related to the eel family at all.
16:00Unlike eels, lampreys have no bones, no jaws, no paired fins.
16:05They also lack a sympathetic nervous system, a spleen, and scales.
16:10They are an ancient fish that resembles fossils 350 million years old.
16:17So, uh, here's what we're doing.
16:19Sorting them by gender.
16:20So, we grab one, and you feel the belly.
16:24Uh-huh.
16:24A male feels nice and firm.
16:26Yes.
16:26You feel that midline muscle separation.
16:28I do.
16:29The female, you can see these, that muscle, uh, separate those lines.
16:33Yeah.
16:33These are called Maya mirrors.
16:35Plus, when you feel the belly, see how it's sort of roly-poly?
16:38Very squishy.
16:39And we go at it.
16:40And every now and then, we, uh, have to put them in some water, because they don't like
16:44to be out of the water any longer than they have to be.
16:46Sure.
17:00Up!
17:01Here they go.
17:05Off to be sterilized.
17:13And...
17:14Male.
17:17Yes.
17:19Oh. Is that a...
17:21A beeper.
17:22Let's see if I pulled the right one out of there.
17:29That's it.
17:30All right. So he's got a...
17:32It's like a pit tag?
17:34There's a tag. No, it's much smaller than a pit tag.
17:37It's just a sliver.
17:38And so we'll put that in a bag,
17:40take it down, and you and Bill can cut it out of that.
17:43Oh, super.
17:44Later on. All right.
17:46Coming up...
17:47Turns out a dead lamprey can be the life of the party.
17:51You try that.
17:53I got paid for this.
17:55I was just about to ask you.
18:10You're Bill? Hello.
18:12Mike. Nice to meet you.
18:13When things go beep, Bill gets involved, or at least that's what Mike tells me.
18:17Why is it important to retrieve the little thing?
18:20Well, this is part of a study that I was conducting for a number of years.
18:25Three, four, and five years ago, I collected a large number of larvae,
18:32like you might have gotten with the Electrofisher earlier in the day.
18:35Uh-huh.
18:36And injected them with coated wire tags and then released them in various streams.
18:40And we're getting them back now as spawning phase animals.
18:45Yeah.
18:45And by recovering those animals and the tags, I'm able to tell where they were tagged, when they were tagged,
18:54where we released them, what size they were when we released them, what streams they've come back to, and how
19:02many years it was before they metamorphosed and became parasitic.
19:06How big is this tag?
19:08Not real big.
19:09Here's the one from this critter right here.
19:11Where?
19:12It's like this hyphen.
19:15It's that under the tape?
19:17That's under the tape.
19:18That's what we're looking for?
19:19That's what you're looking for.
19:22Good grief.
19:23But they've actually laser etched them with numbers.
19:28So how do you get it?
19:31We use single-edge razor blades.
19:32All right.
19:33And the tag itself has been, well, let me put this up here so that it's out of the way.
19:38I'd hate to lose my previous data.
19:41Right.
19:41And I don't want to, you know, mess up your, clearly you've got a codified, organized system going on.
19:46Well.
19:47Down here in the lab.
19:48What's this?
19:49That is the coated wire tag detector.
19:51Oh.
19:52It's a big magnetometer is what it is.
19:55So you want me to begin slicing?
19:57Just slice it in half to start with.
20:01Now we're going to run it through here to see which half it's in.
20:04You just pick it up and wave it through.
20:07It's in this half.
20:08The best thing to do now, since we know which side it's in, you just cut that in half and
20:13repeat the process.
20:20I got paid for this.
20:21I was just about to ask you.
20:23You've been doing this for 26 years.
20:25Well, last year I didn't get paid for it.
20:27I just did it.
20:28I volunteered.
20:28I volunteered to do this.
20:29Well, sure.
20:30How could you, how could you leave all this?
20:33Yeah.
20:35And that's a good sign that it isn't there.
20:37This is like some jacked up game show.
20:39Marty Hall, I believe was.
20:40That's right.
20:44That's just me rocking stuff.
20:46That's just rocking the boat.
20:48I've been doing that for years, Bill.
20:51Very good.
20:53You try that.
20:56Sure, I make it look easy.
20:58Because I have experience.
21:02Here we go.
21:09Nothing to see in there.
21:14How many of these have you done, you reckon?
21:17Oh.
21:17To the nearest million.
21:20Well, it's probably upwards of a thousand at this point.
21:23Say Doug, you're messing up my game.
21:27That's it.
21:28No touchy.
21:31It's in there somewhere.
21:39Someone's leaning on my counter.
21:41You're not there yet.
21:44You don't have a magnifying glass yet?
21:46No.
21:46Of course not.
21:47That would be too easy.
21:49Oh, smell that.
21:55It's in there.
21:57I see it.
21:58In fact, you're right.
21:59I see it.
22:00What do we do with it when we get it?
22:02Well, we put it over on that sheet of paper and stick a piece of tape over it.
22:07Is that it on the end of my razor?
22:09That is it.
22:11Coming up.
22:12You didn't tell me there was this level of precaution.
22:15I mean, this is Ebola stuff.
22:17A dirty jobs, toxic nursery rhyme.
22:20It's so simple a child could do it.
22:21This little fishy goes to the market.
22:23There you go.
22:24This little fishy gets a needle stuck in his gut.
22:28And this little fishy goes wee, wee, wee all the way to the emergency exit.
22:33I'm sure it's all perfectly safe.
22:35You did that, Mike.
22:37And later, in Las Vegas,
22:40I find it takes a very special person to be chef to the sharks.
22:44Cutting up rotten, smelly fish and feeding them to sharks is better than dealing with people any day.
22:50Definitely.
22:58So we're here at the microscope station.
23:00Yes.
23:00There must be a better name for it than that.
23:02None that I ever came up with.
23:04Okay.
23:04And we've got to somehow figure out how to get this microscopic speck under here so we can see it
23:12on the monitor and hopefully read it.
23:13Correct.
23:14What should I do?
23:16Now you've got to slice into the tape.
23:18So do I peel the scotch tape back?
23:20No.
23:21Pull the whole tape up?
23:22No, just try.
23:23Just kind of gut it.
23:24Obviously I'm going to take some of the paper too.
23:28Not if you do it right.
23:29Oh, no.
23:30Well, that's not going to be done right.
23:32That looks like you've got it loose.
23:34Just put your finger on top of it.
23:36If you take this and fold it up next to it, it will...
23:40It should latch onto it.
23:42That's pretty close.
23:43Let's put it underneath and see if we can read it.
23:46There you go.
23:48Oh, it looks...
23:50Oh, that has...
23:51That has goo.
23:54Oh, yeah.
23:55We may not be able to read this.
23:59No, there is one that's cleaned.
24:01Oh, I'm looking to clean one.
24:02Where's that?
24:03Well, first we'll have to put this one back on the sheet.
24:07Oh.
24:07Which means I'll have to go get some tape.
24:08Okay.
24:13Use that to put it back.
24:18And that's it.
24:19And then you go back to your little magnetic pencil.
24:23Whoops.
24:24It's a super, super magnetic.
24:27And I'll have to run off and get some more tape when we're done, but I'll do that.
24:32At some point, I know, Bill, your scientific mind is going to conclude that having the tape dispenser here would
24:38be an amazing time saver.
24:47And there you go.
24:48What's that little bit of schmutz on the end there?
24:50Well, it's probably off of the tape.
24:53But you can see there's 05, 1874.
24:58The 05 indicates that it's Fish and Wildlife Service.
25:02And the 1874 is the batch.
25:05I go over here to my handy-dandy little readout sheet, which is right here.
25:16And if we run down the, let's see, the tag code, it's 05, 1874.
25:23It's a batch tag.
25:24I tagged 783 of them, released them in the Pine River 6 to 7 July.
25:30July of last year?
25:31Of 2005.
25:332005?
25:34Good grief.
25:35And so this one didn't metamorphose until either the fall of 2008 or the spring of 2009, and has come
25:44back to spawn in 2010.
25:47Thanks.
25:48I don't know what I'm going to do with my newfound knowledge, but I'm going to go reflect upon all
25:51I've learned.
25:52It's a lot of fun.
25:53And leave you with your life's work.
25:55Well, thank you.
25:56As you work.
25:57I've retired, so I'm turning it over to someone else, but...
26:00You know, this show's eventually going to end, and when it does, it's good to know Dave has some options.
26:04I'm leaving now.
26:09Wow.
26:10That was involved.
26:12Now I'm off to sterilize some male lamp rays.
26:15How complicated can that be?
26:18Well, there it is.
26:21You didn't tell me there was this level of, what do you call it, precaution.
26:27I mean, this is Ebola stuff.
26:29Well, we're very careful with it.
26:31It's a chemo sterilant, it's a bit of a bad actor, and we want to protect you.
26:35Well, I'm well acquainted with bad actors.
26:38Zach?
26:40Pat?
26:40Right.
26:41All right.
26:41I guess most of my questions can wait until we're actually doing the work, because I can't even imagine how
26:46the chemical is applied.
26:47Would we rub it on it, or what?
26:49You inject it.
26:50Inject it?
26:51Yep, there's an injector here in the injection room.
26:54Well, you would think.
26:55I mean, if you're going to put an injector anywhere.
26:57Yeah.
26:58Mike, we use a piece of robotics to protect the workers from the chemo sterilant and to provide a certain
27:04measure of quality assurance.
27:05So if there's some kind of incident inside whereby the efficacy of our safety protocol is suddenly compromised, what do
27:14we do?
27:15Just run out?
27:16Screaming.
27:18Got it.
27:34That looks complicated.
27:36It looks complicated.
27:38But it's not.
27:40No.
27:40It's so simple a child could do it.
27:51No one likes to be sterilized.
28:00Put them in here first, wave.
28:01Yep.
28:02As soon as you hear that vacuum kick on, you're good.
28:05Upside down?
28:06Upside down, tail first.
28:11Upside down, tail first.
28:13Oh a little remark.
28:17Uh, this'll happen sometimes.
28:19Now what?
28:20Now you gotta mess with that thing.
28:26Where do you go?
28:28That tube shoots out through the wall.
28:30It goes into one of these tanks...
28:37There you go, with a quick little needle.
28:40it goes in
28:43and there she goes
28:46just like that
28:47the injected chemical sterilizes the sea lamprey
28:50so they can't reproduce
28:51but otherwise the lamprey is unharmed
28:56there we go
28:57oh dude
29:03reset
29:11there are about 25 species of sea lamprey
29:1413 of which can be found in the u.s.
29:18sea lampreys lack bones, a jaw, and scales
29:21they were a major cause of the collapse of lake trout, whitefish, and chub stock in the great lakes in
29:26the 1940s and 1950s
29:36so the captured sea lampreys have been sterilized
29:39and now we're moving them outside
29:40where somehow we're going to mark them
29:44that's good
29:45alright
29:46yeah
29:47is this the time to decontaminate?
29:51decontaminating
29:59alright, should be good
30:23that's what friends are for
30:36that's what friends are for
30:38so they've been sterilized
30:40now they're in this holding tank
30:41and we're going to shave them, was it?
30:44yeah, one last thing we have to do is mark them
30:46so that if they get recaptured in a trap someplace
30:50our crew knows they're a good lamprey, not a bad lamprey
30:53ok
30:54before we shave them, there's just one odd thing I should show you Mike
30:58what's that?
30:59and that is, lampreys are pretty excitable
31:01I know you've worked with shark repellents
31:03in this case, lampreys are excitable and avoid other substances as well
31:09and we're working towards a repellent for lampreys
31:12be very useful in the control program
31:13sure
31:14but, uh, spit into this tank
31:16just spit?
31:17yeah, give it a good honker
31:21oh yeah
31:28that's because of my spit?
31:30you did that, Mike
31:32what have you been eating, man?
31:34very bad things, Mike
31:37wow
31:38well, explain that
31:41well, uh, we don't really know
31:43we're studying it now
31:44especially to see if we can, uh, find a way to reproduce
31:47other than having, like, everybody spit into a jar every day and use it
31:51I mean, that's fascinating
31:53why not get people spitting in jars?
31:55uh, we think if we can find the specific compound
31:58that is affecting them
32:00we can probably produce that, uh, in a better way
32:03than having everybody stand around and spit
32:05we also find some people's spit works better than other people's
32:09how's that?
32:09Dave, you spit in there
32:12okay, mix it in
32:16five
32:17four
32:19three
32:20two
32:25you annoyed the hell out of the one
32:28okay
32:31fascinating
32:33so, to the shaving
32:34lamprey shaven party
32:38by the way, this is Jake Nichols
32:40hi, Jake
32:41he's a lamprey shaving expert
32:43and he's gonna show you
32:44congratulations on that
32:46I just turn it upside down
32:48and run the dorsal fin through
32:50that's when their dorsals fall right in the, uh, bucket there
32:53the dorsal fin is shaved to identify the lampreys that have been sterilized
32:57if they're recaptured at a later date
32:59the Fish and Wildlife Service will know at a glance
33:02that these fish have already been fixed
33:04you ready for a race?
33:05no
33:06okay
33:06no, but I'm, yeah, yeah, why not?
33:08no, you know what?
33:09I'm not gonna race
33:10this is just too weird a race to have
33:12unless you guys have them
33:13oh, yeah
33:13I'm the champion
33:15really?
33:16yeah
33:17congratulations
33:18the sea lamprey actually has two dorsal fins
33:21cutting off one of them
33:22doesn't hinder its ability to swim or survive in the wild
33:27so, they're gonna get in there
33:28they're gonna fight for the mate
33:29and then
33:31if they win
33:33they, uh, will do what they do
33:34but they'll be firing blanks
33:36yep
33:36so, after all the handling these have gone through
33:39you've seen how many times we handle each lamprey
33:41this is worse than cutting firewood
33:43uh, you know
33:45and, uh, they still look pretty vigorous
33:47yeah
33:48oh, I'll say
33:49so, we're expecting them to be fully competitive
33:51once they get in the river
33:53to fight for a mate
33:54and they do have to fight for a mate
33:56more sterile males
33:57fewer viable progeny
34:06so, in the back of the truck
34:08we've got
34:09we've got hundreds
34:10that are ready for, uh
34:11what would you call it?
34:12re-assimilation?
34:13re-assimilation, that's right
34:18putting these shaven, sordid, robo-injected predators
34:22back into the stream
34:23marks the final phase of a comprehensive process
34:26to eradicate sea lampreys
34:28why don't we do it again?
34:30and the work goes on
34:31Mike Toohey and his team
34:33will continue releasing sea lampreys
34:35back into streams
34:36until every last stream
34:38is free of sea lampreys
34:42thanks
34:43thank you
34:44and remember
34:45next time you're in Great Lakes territory
34:47and you spot a sea lampreys
34:50spit at it for me
34:53coming up
34:53live from the stainless steel kitchen room
34:56in glamorous Las Vegas
34:57the premiere of my new extravaganza
35:00a man and his bongo drum
35:04we're mixing
35:05you need the berry
35:06so, what you're saying is
35:07shut up and pour the hot water
35:08well, tough audience in Vegas
35:17people stop me all the time
35:19and they say
35:19Mike, what is your favorite part of Dirty Jobs?
35:22and my answer is always the same thing
35:23I say that my favorite part of Dirty Jobs
35:25is that part of Dirty Jobs
35:26that starts right after we stop shooting
35:28Dirty Jobs
35:29which is where you found us right now
35:31typically the guys and I
35:32try and find a likely space
35:35and belly up to some sort of bar
35:37and enjoy a frosty beverage
35:38and reflect upon the events of the day
35:40of course, my second favorite part of Dirty Jobs
35:43is the people I meet
35:44the people I meet on this show
35:46are so much fun
35:47because they're all great to talk to
35:48and my theory is
35:49they're great to talk to
35:50because they listen
35:52some, of course, listen better than others
35:55Mandy
35:55is somebody I met a couple of years ago
35:57and you haven't had a chance to meet
35:59I met her in Las Vegas
36:00she was working at a place called the Shark Reef
36:03which is an aquarium
36:04and, well, to make a long story short
36:06Mandy was fun to talk to
36:07but not because she hung on every word I said
36:11in fact, if she was listening at all
36:13it was only with one ear
36:16Hi, Mandy
36:16Hi
36:17What's that in your ear, by the way?
36:18My radio
36:20I'm not fascinating enough for you
36:21you've got to listen to music
36:22while we talk
36:23I listen to music all day
36:25Okay, good for you
36:26Music lover Mandy prepares fish food
36:28for the residents of the Shark Reef Aquarium
36:31located inside the Mandalay Bay Casino
36:34One of Mandy's top fish food entrees
36:36is squid
36:38Let's talk about the squid for a second, Mandy
36:40Okay
36:40Shall we?
36:43Looks a lot like the finger on my rubber glove
36:45It does, doesn't it?
36:46I mean, that's amazing
36:48You can put a squid on your finger
36:51Have you ever done that before?
36:52I haven't
36:54You're the first one who's done that
36:55A big day for everybody
36:56You're going to tell me
36:57you don't sit down here
36:57when things get slow
36:58and you don't take the squid
37:00and you don't make a special
37:01gloved hand with them?
37:03I have never done that
37:04Well, you know what your problem is
37:06you just don't know
37:07how to enjoy your food
37:11It's never occurred to you
37:12to put some squid on your fingers?
37:14Not once
37:18Teacher's own, I suppose
37:19You know what's kind of fun?
37:20I love it
37:21When I'm working
37:22I have all my bosses
37:22standing outside
37:23looking through the window like that
37:24Isn't that cool?
37:26It's great
37:26It's so peaceful
37:30What'd you do before this?
37:33Um, I was a buster in room service
37:36Huh, how does this compare?
37:38It's much better
37:39This is better?
37:41Cutting up rotten, smelly fish
37:43and feeding them to sharks
37:44is better than dealing with people
37:46any day
37:46Definitely
37:50You said it
37:51Not me
37:52What about all this stuff over here?
37:54This looks great
37:56We're gonna make meat gel
37:58Meat gel
37:59Good
38:00Now I'm gonna take a wild guess
38:01but meat gel is made
38:02by throwing these ingredients
38:04into the wheeled blender
38:05and then hitting a button
38:06It is
38:11Oh, look at that
38:12You can drop right in
38:22Good job
38:24This is a very complicated dive
38:29Yeah, here
38:30Don't use that one
38:32No, what?
38:34There's no five second rule here
38:38Alright then
38:42I just pour it in slowly
38:43when I mix
38:44When you what?
38:45When you say go?
38:47Mandy telepathically
38:48tells me to go
38:49So I shake the powder gelatin
38:51into the cold water
38:51Once this is mixed
38:53with hot water
38:54and blended fish
38:54it'll create a kind of
38:57fish jello
38:59This is a great job
39:01I'm pouring gelatin
39:04Binding agent
39:06Mandy's mixing
39:09We're a team
39:14You wanna switch up
39:15just let me know
39:19I'm okay
39:33We're mixing
39:35Alright
39:40Now we're gonna need
39:41that boiling water
39:42over there
39:42Boiling water
39:45That would be that
39:46stainless steel pot
39:47with all the steam
39:48coming off
39:49That would be it
39:50I'll get it
39:54Now you get to stir
39:56Now, reveal
39:56Stir what?
39:58Stir the water?
39:59That seems senseless
40:00Actually, pour the hot water
40:02in here
40:02Okay
40:03Just tell me again
40:04what this is
40:05This is gelatin
40:06Unflavored gelatin
40:07Just like you would
40:08use in jello
40:09Right
40:09And ultimately
40:10the gelatin
40:11it's gonna combine
40:12with the meat shake
40:13It is
40:13And then it's gonna
40:14go in the boiling water
40:15And what's the finished
40:16product called again?
40:17Meat gel
40:18A meat gel
40:19Of course
40:19It's like haggis
40:21We're hate cheese
40:22We need to hurry
40:22We need to hurry
40:23It's gonna stick
40:24Okay
40:24So what you're saying
40:25is shut up
40:26and pour the hot water
40:27Got it
40:31Can't see a thing
40:35Now mix the catfish pellets in
40:39What's the magic word, Mandy?
40:41Leave
40:44Or now
40:47So I'm mixing catfish pellets
40:49into the meat liquid
40:52The liquidy meat thing
40:54Mandy's pouring in
40:55the gelatinous mass
40:56as I stir up
40:57the meaty broth
40:58If all goes as planned
41:00some additional hardening
41:01will occur
41:01and we'll have ourselves
41:02a big old tub
41:04of homemade meat gel
41:06Go ahead and pour them
41:07into the tray
41:07Pour the meaty gel
41:09onto the tray, alright?
41:11Do it slowly
41:13Magic word?
41:14No
41:16You're not picking
41:17on the magic word, are you?
41:18Okay, right
41:19Because it's hardening
41:20right now, right?
41:20It's going to harden
41:21Alright
41:23So far, would you say
41:25I've been more of a help
41:25or a hindrance
41:26to you today?
41:28Most people that try
41:29to help me are a hindrance
41:30So
41:31you're very jolly
41:32in spite of the fact
41:33that I've slowed you down
41:40Are you going to clean
41:41the floors for me?
41:42Well, sure
41:43I always clean the floors
41:44The trays were overloaded
41:45with meat gel
41:46That's the problem
41:47But when it's all
41:48said and done
41:50it's going to look
41:50like this
41:52That's what we're
41:53shooting for?
41:53Yeah
41:54We cut it up
41:55into little pieces
42:08Absolutely dreadful
42:10If you're sitting at home
42:11and you're thinking
42:12about whipping up
42:13a batch of meat gel
42:14passing it out
42:15to the kids
42:16Don't do it
42:18Don't do it
42:30Dave's been shooting
42:31free throws
42:32for a while now
42:33in an attempt
42:34to inspire you
42:35to go to
42:35discovery.com
42:36forward slash
42:37dirty jobs
42:39He's going to keep
42:40attempting to get the ball
42:42through the basket
42:43until somebody goes
42:44to discovery.com
42:46forward slash
42:46dirty jobs
42:47and suggests our next
42:48dirty adventure
42:49Thank you
42:50Last one for all the marbles
42:52Make it count
42:52Pressure's on
42:53And
42:53Oh, a close one
42:56Please, won't you help
42:57discovery.com
42:58forward slash
42:58dirty jobs
43:01That's much better
43:04Really good looking
43:06Yeah
43:08This changes everything, man
43:09Polarizes
43:10I put these on
43:11You seem mild-mannered
43:12even-tempered
43:13Troy seems
43:15nourished
43:16So, how's it?
43:17You're just going
43:18to ask me questions
43:18No, no
43:19We're going to
43:19It's going to be
43:20a total mind meld
43:21We won't be talking
43:22We won't be using
43:23our voices
43:23But merely
43:24It'll be a
43:25three-minute conversation
43:26with facial tics
43:28and grunts
43:28Good
43:29Say something interesting
43:29I dare you
43:30Typically
43:31it never happens
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