Last time we heard from local (and national) seafood-hero Jon Rowley, it was about something really gross. Now he writes telegrammatically:

Lamprey from the Yukon River just arrived. Get down to Harvest Vine Thurs evening through Sun evening if you get a chance. Joseba grew up with them in Spain. Comfort food to him. He knows what to do with them. He will run them as specials done 3-4 ways. A different fish. Photo is roasted lamprey in Joseba's fried tomato sauce. Addictively delicious. Very short season.

These look like eels but are very different. No bones, no jaw. Very primitive. Arctic lamprey. They are taken by dip nets through holes in the ice at Grayling 400 miles up the Yukon. They start their 2000-mile spawning migration only after the Yukon is iced up. They travel en masse in a huge school. They show up and then they are gone a day or two later. Trying to develop a market that will provide this remote village (one of the Iditarod checkpoints) an income source. Joseba at Harvest Vine may be the only chef in Seattle who knows what to do with them. He has enough to keep them on the menu for a while and probably has 15 or so different ways to prepare them.