Study: More species invasions expected

[Spiel]

Study: More species invasions expected

 

 

January 20th, 2009 / Muskegon Chronicle

 

 

Dozens more foreign species could spread across the Great Lakes in coming years and cause significant damage to the environment and economy, despite policies designed to keep them out, a federal report says.

 

The National Center for Environmental Assessment issued the warning in a study released last week. It identified 30 nonnative species that pose a medium or high risk of reaching the lakes and 28 others that already have a foothold and could disperse widely.

 

Among them are fish such as the tench (”doctor fish”), the monkey goby and the blueback herring.

 

“These findings support the need for detection and monitoring efforts at those ports believed to be at greatest risk,” the report said.

 

It described some of the region’s busiest ports as strong potential targets for invaders, including: Toledo, Ohio; Gary, Ind.; Duluth, Minn.; Superior, Wis.; Chicago; and Milwaukee.

 

Exotic species are one of the biggest ecological threats to the nation’s largest surface freshwater system. At least 185 are known to have a presence in the Great Lakes, although the report says just 13 have done extensive harm to the aquatic environment and the regional economy.

 

Many of the most destructive invasive species — including quagga mussels and the round goby — are abundant in Lake Michigan and connecting waterways, such as Muskegon Lake.

 

One of the most recent discoveries of a Great Lakes invader occurred in Muskegon Lake. Anglers in 2006 found thousands of hemimysis anomala, bloody red shrimp, swimming in the Muskegon Lake channel to Lake Michigan.

 

Perhaps the most notorious invaders imported to the lakes by transoceanic ships are zebra and quagga mussels.

 

Zebra mussels have clogged intake pipes of power plants, industrial facilities and public water systems, forcing them to spend hundreds of millions on cleanup and repairs.

 

Zebra and quagga mussels filter huge quantities of plankton out of the water column, reducing the amount of food available for Great Lakes fish. The result: Whitefish and chinook salmon have been shrinking in recent years, according to government data.

 

Roughly two-thirds of the new arrivals since 1960 are believed to have hitched a ride to the lakes inside ballast tanks of cargo ships from overseas ports.

 

For nearly two decades, U.S. and Canadian agencies have required some oceangoing freighters to exchange their fresh ballast water with salty ocean water before entering the Great Lakes system. Both nations recently ordered all freighters to rinse empty tanks with seawater in hopes of killing organisms lurking in residual pools on the bottom.

 

Despite such measures, “it is likely that nonindigenous species will continue to arrive in the Great Lakes,” said the report by the national center, which is part of the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Some saltwater-tolerant species may survive ballast water exchange and tank flushing, it said. And aquatic invaders could find other pathways to the lakes — perhaps escaping from fish farms or being released from aquariums.

 

The U.S. Coast Guard and Congress have yet to develop ballast water treatment standards for transoceanic ships entering the lakes, despite years of debate on the issue.

 

Scientists fear the monkey goby might be one of the next Great Lakes invaders.

 

The National Center for Environmental Assessment conducted computer modeling studies of nine foreign species that could reach the Great Lakes or are already there and might spread to the point of causing ecological and environmental damage. Among them:

 

- Blueback herring.

- Sand goby.

- Roach, a fish common in northern Europe.

- Rudd, a Eurasian fish brought to U.S. as bait.

- Cercopagis pengoi, or fishhook waterflea.

- Tench, or “doctor fish.”

- Tubenose goby.

- Corophium curvispinum, an amphipod or crustacean.

- Monkey goby.

[fishindevil]

Great more invasions comming,and more gobies as well !!!

[walleyejigger]

sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, be afraid to see what the "monkey goby" looks like

[Spiel]

Monkey Goby Image

[walleyejigger]

Monkey Goby Image

 

 

not what i was picturing but still VERY ugly

[bountyhunter]

Just like the round goby, but darker and uglier.