VIDEO: Documentary series highlights invasive species in national parks – Part 1

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A series of short documentaries covering invasive species in the Great Lakes was released in October, showing how invaders are changing the ecosystems in national parks and what’s being done to stop them. Videos were created by the National Park Service funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Part 1 covers aquatic invaders – how invasive mussels and round goby may be throwing off the Lake Michigan food web and causing avian botulism outbreaks, and what you can do to help.

4 thoughts on “VIDEO: Documentary series highlights invasive species in national parks – Part 1

  1. For the last 50 years the Great Lakes has been sacrificed on the alter of Man’s greed. The first major aquatic invader was the sea lamprey which gained access by way of the Welland Canal and decimated the commercial and sport fishes. Then, the lowly alewife entered by the same avenue and wreaked havoc on the food supply of more desirable fishes, and cluttered beaches with their stinking carcasses after whole population die-offs. Since then there has been a steady parade of toxic invaders. Each one of these episodes blared a clarion call to do something to stop the invaders, which was ignored by affected state gov’ts and politicians of all persuasions, all to cater to the marine shipping industry. Now we have the Repugs in control of MI, WI, and IN, and they intend to stymie proposed stronger control measures meant to protect the Great Lakes, all to satisfy their corporate masters. GREED, pure and simple, has devastated the Great Lakes and all we can do is play with toys to try to forestall the inevitable. The white man has been resident in the Great Lakes Region for about 160 years and we have managed to screw up what took Nature thousands of years to create. SAD!

  2. Michigan is controlled by republicans that refuse to support the DNR and DEQ. They cut out the funding needed for the hatchery expansion to produce more walleye and musky predators. All of Michigan’s promoted legislation so far has been anti natural resources, anti fishing, and only for the polluters.

  3. Although it is very important to promote and sustain native species, the primary reason why so many exotic species thrive in the Great Lakes is because the native species are NOT capable of controlling their populations. The relationships between native species in the Great Lakes developed over thousands of years. When exotic species are introduced into the system, they don’t have the same predator/prey relationships that they had in their former habitats–and they do not automatically fill a niche in the Great Lakes’ food chain. Over a very long period of time that may change, but we really can’t afford to wait for evolutionary biology. It’s truly sad that human short-sightedness has essentially destroyed the Great Lakes’ ecosystem. But we need to do what we can to try to restore some semblance of balance…and we need to prevent further invasive species from entering the Great Lakes.

  4. The underwater Goby cannon, to scare Gobies away from spawning sites, maybe long enough to spawn is pushing it. Cannons, barriers electric, bubbles, noise, lights etc.. only affect/control one spot. A healthy high native fish/predator population would provide control for an entire area, lake, river what have you, and reduce invasive species populations, barriers are just another exspensive obstacle for them to get past. Native predators will work for food!

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