http://www.startribune.com/science/247930691.html
Never mind...I'm told that the amount that they would need to clean the Great Lakes would be such an outrageous price tag, that it would never be used.
Oh well....the thought of them disappearing from the lakes was a nice one...even for a moment. :)
imagine if they were gone. say... overnight. I wonder what the lake would look like in 5yrs, or even 1yr ,
Read the article. I hadn't heard this, but I've been out of the loop with OSU and ODNR for a few years so my knowledge is not updated.
Article said the bacteria killed "over 90%" of the zebra mussels. That sounds good but maybe not so good. The surviving mussels apparently have an immunity. It is possible all you'd manage to do is kill out the less hardy mussels from the population and that might eventually lead to the same population we have now but more resistant.
It is very hard to predict what an organism will do out in the open environment vs. a laboratory. Quite risky.
Besides, the mussels did not have some of the terrible consequences that were predicted. They have benefited the Lake in some ways, such as increasing the water clarity which has allowed aquatic vegetation to come back in many areas, which increases habitat. I think they are here to stay for the foreseeable future and their population dynamics will vary over time as all species do.
I personally think that they have helped the lake . If you are in your 60' you can remember what Lake Erie was like when you were a kid . I am not forgetting the big part the federal Goverment played . But zebra muscles work for nothing .
They are one of the worst things to happen to Lake Erie because they also filter out and consume the very food that feeds almost all species of fish just after hatching, and that includes our beloved walleyes. When fish are first hatched they are to small and weak to swim so they are very limited in their ability to seek more fertile feeding ground, basically they just sit on the bottom and feed on zooplankton that the currents bring to them. This is the most critical stage in the recruitment process. In essence they can barely move until they grow some. The zebra mussels feed on the same zooplankton at the same time, so there may not be enough food to support 40 million just hatched walleyes.Quote:
Originally Posted by POPEYE
In the 50s the lake was every bit as clean as it is today, what dirtied the lake was all of the sewage, waste water and phosphorus from detergent and fertilizer that was pouring into the lake from almost every major river, Creeks and stream. That turned Lake Erie into one gigantic cesspool in the early 60s and along with it the decline of the walleye population.
The algae blooms of today are bad but nothing like those in the early to mid 60s. You would actually have to wipe your fish line as you retrieved it to keep from having one sticky stinking mess in and on your reel as well as yourself. It would be a floating mass of dead and dying algae sometimes a couple of inches thick! Most of the public beaches would either be shutdown or at least have warning signs that the water was not safe to swim in due to e coli bacteria as well as the putrid decaying algae
I will also add that I have been fishing Erie since 1955 starting as a 7 year old boy fishing the lake with my father.
True.
However the walleye and other fish populations did not decrease sharply as was originally feared. The walleye population doesn't seem to be greatly impacted by the mussels. The mussels are here to stay, at least for now. Many would say the benefits have out weighed the costs. Doesn't really matter, we have to deal with them until maybe at some time a viable means is found to get rid of them, but if it is should we do it?
Gobies and other invasive species are just as much a threat to native fish populations. If the "flying Carp" ever get into the Great Lakes look out. That could be a real disaster.
Any invasive species (gobies, Asian carp or mussels) is detrimental to the ecosystem of Lake Erie! I have no way of knowing for sure and neither do you, if the mussels have impacted the overall fish populations of Lake Erie.Quote:
Originally Posted by West Basin
Common sense dictates that if an invasive species eats the same foods that the larval stage of the species of fish native to Lake Erie also relies on for survival, and in the quantity that they eat those foods, enough so that the consumption of that food changes the water clarity of the lake, then there most likely has been a negative impact on the recruitment of those larval native species of fish into the fishery. In other words at least some of those larval native species have starved to death and were never recruited into the fishery due specifically to the presence of the invasive species, in this case the mussels.
Please don't sugar coat the fact that they do not belong here and just because the worse case predictions did not come true, that they have not impacted the overall fish populations of lake Erie. True they did clear up the water but clearer does not necessarily mean cleaner or better water quality.
This topic could be argued forever ,with good points on both pros and cons of the zebra mussles, but they are here to stay . If you really want to clean up the lake you would have to take MAN out of the equation ,as we are at the top of the list of polluters . I don't think we make it as an invassive species ,but were here to stay also .
As for fishing in the Lake I would have to say I started somewhere around 49 or 50 for perch ,walleye and blue pike (the last one I caught was 1954 ). And wakina you and I have to meet some day as we both have seen the many changes in the lake .