Wildlife

Alewives: The trouble they cause and the salmon that love them

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By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 3, 2009
Editors note: This is the second of three stories in a series about the challenges of managing non-native fish in the Great Lakes. Pacific salmon, the big money species in the multi-billion dollar Great Lakes fishery, need a feast of alewives to thrive. But alewives are an invasive species that harm lake trout, a native fish that biologists have been trying and failing to re-establish for decades. Alewives keep lake trout down in two ways, said Mark Ebener, fish assessment biologist with the Chippewa Ottawa Resources Authority.

Wildlife

Alewives: Should Great Lakes managers kill ‘em or keep ‘em?

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By Jeff Gillies, jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Sept. 2, 2009
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories about the challenges of managing non-native fish in the Great Lakes. Fishery managers have made little progress in restoring lake trout, the Great Lakes’ dominant predator until the species collapsed in the 1940s and 1950s. Most of them agree that alewives, a non-native fish, are a big part of the problem. They invaded the lakes from the Atlantic Ocean after the Welland Canal opened in 1932.

Echo

Great Lakes fish consumption advisories rise slightly; researchers question extent of mercury risk

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Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 17, 2009

Those looking to enjoy a meal of Great Lakes’ fish are best off going to Lake Superior, according to a recent Canadian study. The report compared the number of fish consumption advisories for each of the Great Lakes in 2009 to the number in 2007. Lake Superior had the least restrictive advisories, said Mike Layton, author of the report by Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based nonprofit that focuses on improving health and the environment. Consumption advisories indicate the presence of chemical contaminants in fish. Lake Superior does not have any advisories that are considered “most restrictive,” where zero meals of certain fish are recommended.  All the other lakes have at least three; Lake Ontario has 18.

Echo

Two series highlight trip around Lake Superior, fisheries in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan

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By Jeff Gillies
Great Lakes Echo
June 25, 2009

Here are couple of recent and on-going series on Great Lakes topics. Dave Spratt of Great Northern Outdoors has written a good three-part series that tells the story of shifting food webs in lakes Huron and Michigan. Parts one and two look at the collapse of Chinook salmon and the rise of walleye in Lake Huron — changes driven by the impact of zebra and quagga mussels on the once abundant alewives. Part three heads to Lake Michigan, where alewives are down but haven’t disappeared, and competing interests from five resource departments in four states make consensus on fish sticking decisions tough. The story is the third one listed on the Great Northern Outdoors main page.

Echo

Ocean Rescue

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(NY) New York Times – Most of the world’s important commercial fish species have been declining for years. Nearly one-fourth are unable, essentially, to reproduce. The biggest cause of the deterioration in ocean health – bigger than climate change or pollution – is overfishing. American fisheries are in better shape than most but not by much. More

Wildlife

Great Lakes fish hatcheries could benefit from new test for deadly VHS virus

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There may be hope for fishery managers still reeling years after a dangerous virus appeared in the Great Lakes. The month-long wait for a viral hemorrhagic septicemia test has hobbled hatcheries that must test fish before introducing them to the region’s lakes and streams. Genetics researchers at the Lake Erie Research Center at the University of Toledo are working on a test that will speed up that diagnosis to a matter of hours. The research, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is one of several projects around the Great Lakes studying a virus that has cost the region tens of millions of dollars in staff time, lost hatchery capacity and research. The tourism and ecosystem impacts are as yet unknown, Marc Gaden, communications director for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, wrote in an e-mail. About $1.2 million from various sources has been spent on projects that seek to better understand the virus and develop diagnostic tests, said Gary Whelan, the fish production manager for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division

The virus was first detected in the Great Lakes in 2005 and 2006 after it killed large numbers of fresh water drum, muskellunge, round gobies and yellow perch.

Echo

DNR investigates fish kill in Lake St. Clair

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(MI) The Detroit News – State wildlife experts want to know why thousands of dead fish are floating on Lake St. Clair near St. Clair Shores. Rotting fish, including smallmouth bass, muskie, walleye, perch and bass, are littering boat wells and shorelines across several miles. “It was just unbelievable,” said Adam Jankowski, a Harrison Township resident who usually puts his boat in the water at St.

Echo

PETA proposes to take control of Grand Haven lighthouses, to create its “fish empathy” headquarters

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press –  If PETA can’t protect horses in Holland, the animal rights organization is going to try to hook the public on safeguarding fish in Grand Haven. The national group on Wednesday asked the National Park Service if it could take control of the iconic Grand Haven lighthouses, where it would serve faux fish sticks in a cafe there and inform people about the alleged torment fish endure when hooked or netted. Earlier this year, the park service declared the Grand Haven lights were available under the National Lighthouse Preservation Act, which allows the transfer of ownership to groups to preserve the beacons. More

Echo

Mercury found in local fish

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(ON) The Sarnia Observer – Toxic chemicals are putting some species of fish at risk in the St. Clair River, a wildlife ecologist says. Kim Wells of Environ International Corp. delivered that message Wednesday to the annual general meeting of the SarniaLambton Environmental Association. Wells was involved in a recent study designed to determine the impact mercury and octachlorostyrene are having on fish, mammals and birds along an 8.3-kilometre stretch of the Canadian side of the international waterway.

Echo

Lake sturgeon larvae ‘Holy Grail’ to area

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(ON) The Windsor Star – For the first time in 30 years, lake sturgeon are spawning on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. “It is truly a breakthrough,” Matthew Child, director of watershed restoration with the Essex Region Conservation Authority, said Tuesday. Child said the four different kinds of rock bottoms built as spawning beds between Fighting Island and LaSalle were only completed last fall and scientists were prepared to wait to see if they’d be used. More