The full effects of the bloody-red shrimp invasion of the Great Lakes are still to be determined. Photo: Kelly Bowen/Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Editor’s Note: It’s an Echo tradition to revisit one of our favorite holiday stories: Tim Campbell’s The Twelve Days of Aquatic Invasive Species Christmas.
Campbell rewrote the lyrics of the holiday tune for the Wisconsin Sea Grant in 2011. We’re publishing a new verse on each of the actual twelve days of Christmas.
On the eighth day of Christmas, a freighter sent to me…
Eight shrimp ‘a swarming — The bloody red shrimp, Hemimysis anomala, is one of the Great Lakes’ most recently discovered ballast invaders. Another Ponto-Caspian invader, bloody-red shrimp swarms have been documented up to 1,500 individuals/square meter. Their effects on the Great Lakes are largely unknown, but they may compete for food with young fish, and have been found in the diet of some fish in the Great Lakes. Regardless of the impacts, eight shrimp ‘a swarming is a huge underestimate.
Seven carp and counting, six lamprey leaping, FIVE BOAT-WASH STATIONS! Four perch on ice, three clean boat steps, two red swamp crayfish and a carp barrier in the city!