DETROIT -- 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.

Commission spokesman Marc Gaden shipped 2 pounds of frozen lamprey from Lake Huron. He says Great Lakes officials "would prefer to send them truckloads of lamprey.''

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