Last commercial fisherman departs Milwaukee. "The fish are gone."

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/127610953.html

The latest in the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel's ongoing investigation of the ruin of the Great Lakes.


..snip..

"The decline of the (commercial) fishery going on right now in Lake Michigan and Huron doesn't have anything to do with overfishing," says David Lodge, a biologist and Great Lakes expert at the University of Notre Dame. "Clearly, that was a major driver in the 19th and 20th centuries, but that's not what's going on now. Now it's changes in the food web that appear to be driven by invasive mussels."

The primary suspect is the quagga mussel, which arrived in the Great Lakes as a stowaway in the ballast tanks of freighters that carried them across the Atlantic. Still a rare find in Lake Michigan until just several years ago, the mollusks mysteriously and suddenly went viral.

Today they smother the bottom of the lake almost from shore to shore, and their numbers are estimated at 900 trillion.

Each Junior Mint-size quagga can filter up to a liter of water per day, stripping away the plankton that for thousands of years directly and indirectly sustained the lake's native fish.


..end..

[underpants]

1. Wow that is sad.

Amazing too. I had no idea.

[alfredo]

2. Damn, that is scary.

[leeroysphitz]

3. I don't see how this is Obama's fault. n/t

[izquierdista]

4. They came with him

On the boat over from Kenya. :silly:

[Motown_Johnny]

5. we need to introduce something that preys on those damn things

mussels shouldn't be at the top of the food chain


I know that this may cause other problems in the long run but I don't see how those problems could be as bad as the ones we are facing now.

[safeinOhio]

8. Lake sturgeon love em and

are making a come back in the Great Lakes. Only problem is it takes many years for them to grow big enough to fish.

[Scuba]

11. Yep, many as in decades. The 212 pound sturgeon caught in Lake Winnebago...

.. last year was estimated to be 120 years old.

Here's an interesting - and timely - article on the subject.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/127665443.html

[Motown_Johnny]

20. then we should outlaw catching them

even for the roe


we need these freaking mussels gone


Maybe we can dredge them up and grind then down for animal feed or something. Fertilizer even. Anything that destroys them without harming the environment would be great. If it can turn a profit that would be even better.

[Scuba]

22. Sturgeon fishing is highly regulated to protect the species....

...the season ends after the harvest goal is reached, regardless of date. Some seasons have been as short as 30 hours. There are also hordes of volunteers that protect them when spawning.

http://www.sturgeonfortomorrow.org/guarding-program.php

[Enthusiast]

30. I agree.......nt

[Submariner]

6. We are a greedy stupid species

We wiped out the Native American, the buffalo, whales, cod, billfish, coral reefs, bird migrations, "trophy"-sized fish and game, many amphibians and reptiles, and we're working on getting rid of the Polar bear and Bluefin tuna now. We have poisoned our oceans, rivers, streams, groundwater, soils, and food supplies. So losing the Great Lakes fisheries should be no surprise, especially to the Lakes fishing community, because they brought it on themselves. Why regulate and sustain a fishery when you can be part of the race to make the most money (over fish) before there is no more money to be made?

There are 7 billion of us sucking off the earth's natural resources faster than they can regenerate themselves, so now we try and mimic mother nature by using aquaculture to make fish and shellfish in a last desperate attempt to stave off the forthcoming food and water shortages that will make the London riots look like a day at the beach.

So, although the dad and son fishermen story may be touching, even with the crying mother at the end, it was their local forefathers who fished the Lakes to death.

[Scuba]

7. Um, no. It was the invasive species that killed the food chain, not overfishing...

...but your rant is pretty much on target.

[Submariner]

9. I understand your point, but

the invasive species issue just led to a quicker demise of the fishing industry, which was on a fast decline from overfishing with state of the art fish-finding collection methods. The fishermen may have limped along for another 10-20 years, but invasive species brought the kiss of death sooner.

[Evasporque]

10. FIsh Tugs

Good pix of the boats used in milwaukee...

somewhere I have photos of Fish TUgs coming in swamped by seagulls on a beautiful blue day....quite a sight...and one that I will miss.....they became very rare in recent years...and now there won't be any...


Fish TUgs

http://wimodelboats.org/boat_school.htm

[WingDinger]

12. Then use them to filter pollution.

[Scuba]

13. That's actually happening. The increased clarity in the water is part of the problem. n/t

[zalinda]

14. Catfish also eat quagga mussels. n/t

[firehorse]

15. Steamed mussels are good in a wine butter sauce.

Lets eat them. Or are they too small?

[Scuba]

16. They're small, but 900 trillion of them should make a nice meal. n/t

[firehorse]

21. How many years till the penny sized grow so they can be "over harvested" and eaten.

At that point, restock with fish???

[phaseolus]

18. about the size of a penny

n/t

[waking wisconsin]

25. that's what I was thinking

start farming them until their numbers are reduced....a gift in disguise??

[PeaceNikki]

17. Asian carp are next

MILWAUKEE, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Invasive Asian Carp have been found in the Wisconsin River in their seeming inexorable migration north despite attempts to halt them, officials said.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said a bighead carp was caught in the Lower Wisconsin River near Lone Rock while "environmental" DNA sampling on the St. Croix River in the northwestern of the state has turned up positive samples of silver carp, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday.

The silver and bighead species of Asian carp worry biologists because of impacts they can have on native ecosystems.

Imported into North America by Southern fish farmers, the carp have been migrating north for decades after escaping their containment ponds.

Most of the efforts against the carp so far have been directed at protecting the Great Lakes, officials said, but inland waterways are an area of major concern.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/08/12/Asian-carp-found-in-Wisconsin/UPI-54451313176047/#ixzz1V1Dwur9s

[Scuba]

19. Thanks Nikki!

[undeterred]

23. Nobody cares.

We knew this was going to happen if they didn't do something... and its happening.

[thereismore]

26. There is no native ecosystem in those lakes anymore. Carp can help bring

new balance to the lakes. Maybe not Asian carp, but European carp, Cyprinus carpio. nd they Looove mussels.

[Gregorian]

24. But humans are still growing in numbers. Candle at both ends.

Man, what a bunch of idiots. Sorry if that offends anyone. I just cannot believe how unaware most people are. Am I the only one who saw this coming? 40 years ago?

[elias7]

28. Humans are idiots

We are self-destructive and short-sighted. The Great Lakes are done. We need to face it and learn from it.

[LWolf]

27. I wonder why they suddenly "went viral."

If we knew, perhaps we could change those conditions.

Meanwhile, they should become a food product for people to exploit. People food, cat food, dog food... or maybe a fertilizer. Capitalistic America ought to be able to create a market and decimate the resource in short order.

[Enthusiast]

29. As strange as it might sound,

the quagga and zebra mussels could actually save the great lakes from the Asian carp.

It could turn out that mussel filtered Lake Michigan water won't provide enough food to support the Asian carp. On the other hand, high water during a flood could possibly allow the carp to enter Ohio's Maumee river system that flows into far more fertile Lake Erie.

It was discovered that several native species eat the invasive mussels. The best species at consuming these mussels is the pumkinseed sunfish. I would be interested in seeing a study on the growth rate of these sunfish and any change in their population.