VIDEO: How Many Sport Fish Can Lake Michigan Support?
Who’s eating whom in Lake Michigan?
The emergence of a few bad actors has made it difficult to answer that question.
That’s why University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers are studying the impact of aquatic invasive species — specifically round gobies — on Lake Michigan food webs.
Gobies are a ravenous and aggressive fish species that invaded Great Lakes in the early 1990s. They subsist on tiny bottom-dwelling organisms and feed on baby quagga mussels for a side dish, scientists say.
Food web research from Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana may determine whether Lake Michigan has reached its carrying capacity or if it can support a legion of gobies without further environmental degradation.
One invasive species is too many. Our goal should be zero tolerance, whether we ever reach it matters not. Lake Michigan is an invasive species sanctuary, because it is beng managed for the salmon/alewife program. This requires that all native species stay in a depleted state, to protect the alewives and the salmon, which allowed the alewives to thrive in the first place. Thus we must sacrifice the greater good for one non native fish, which is a minority fishery. Protecting the alewives protects all invasive species, and leaves us wide open to the asian carp.
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