"All Aboard" - Two New Invasive Species Per Year Entering US/Canadian Great Lakes
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.21.07
Somehow this posting was rejected by one of Lloyd's favorite sources, CuteOverload. Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: - "Frustrated by the mounting number of invasive species arriving in the bellies of overseas freighters, some conservationists are proposing a simple but radical solution: Ban the ships from the Great Lakes until they can figure out how to stop discharging contaminated ballast water. "This is being done out of frustration," said Jennifer Nalbone of the conservation group Great Lakes United. "This is a decision we've made because the federal government has failed to protect the Great Lakes."... New foreign species, meanwhile, continue to be discovered in the Great Lakes at a rate of about one every six months". Meanwhile, via The Detroit News, the global fleet also shows it's teeth: - "Shipping interests in the U.S. and Canada have banded together to try to strike down a Michigan law that attempts to stop the spread of invasive species such as zebra mussels into the Great Lakes. Four shipping companies, four shipping associations and one dock company filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit asking a judge to declare the Michigan Ballast Water Act unconstitutional." See earlier post on the environmental footprint of the marine shipping industry here. Besides supporting Great Lakes United, what can be done? Buy local. Images: Sea Lamprey sucking blood plasma from Lake Michigan Lake Trout. Michigan Sea Grant Program; Sea Lamprey mouth showing rings of teeth. NOAA Glossary Footnote: This author has had a Sea Lamprey attach briefly to his forearm. (Some say they'll let go of warm blooded animals on their own; but the natural response, which I share, is to yank it off with a free hand and get drunk in a failed attempt to forget it). Leaves a lasting impression about the significance of invasive species.
Is this the same fish??
It's center teeth look like a verry evil smiley!
Let's grow and buy local products!
Growing and buying local products have little to do with this. I'm not sure how the lamprey got to the Great lakes, but another major concern is zebra mussels. They come in on ships ballast waters.
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Seal Lamprey highjacked their way in by suckering on the hulls of ships, starting in the 1950's. Many more devastating species have come in since Zebras. Most of the new bad guys are Asian.
The entire economic basis of the global economy hinges on outsourcing the supply chain for everything from industrial raw materials to finished product. Buying local is both a symbolic and a practical means of bringing attention to these otherwise invisible impacts of Asian and African bilge water dumping.
Great Lakes United is circulating a petition to ban ocean-vessels from the Great Lakes to protect from invasive species, until they are regulated and prove they will come in clean. Even if you live outside the Great Lakes region, this would protect freshwater rivers and lakes....for example the invasive zebra and quagga mussels, introduced into the Great Lakes from ocean-vessels in the 80's have now infested waters as far as CA and OK.
Sign the petition at: www.saltfreelakes.org
Thank you for your help!