Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Lake Michigan goes Jurassic.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Lake Michigan is changing faster than researchers are able study it.
Scuba diving researchers are finding what sounds like scenes right out of Jurassic Park. Strange new primitive plant life. Carpets of mussels starving out native species in the lake.

Scientists are saying the ecology of the lakes are being upended.

Fishermen are hauling up stinky E. coli bacteria and botulism spored mats of algae. Algae that stretches from Chicago to the Straits of Mackinac. The expanse can be seen from boat decks and hilltops.

Scientists are afraid this "lake moss", coined by fishermen, is also contributing to the deaths of migratory birds, which are wide spread.

Thousands of migratory birds have died from Type E Botulism poisoning from Lake Michigan, but they didn't get it from eating canned goods.

Scientists are blaming invasive populations of zebra mussels and round gobies.

Zebra mussels are also plaguing Lake Erie. The invasive attack of aquatic mollusks has tripled in the last 3 years and the mussels are adapting to colder and deeper waters.

The great lakes aren't the only place these devils are being found. In the warmer waters of California reservoirs the same zebra mussels are multiplying like rabbits.

The California Fish and game department doesn't know if they came from Lake Erie or some other affected waterway, but their problems are the same as those in the great lakes as a result of this invasive species.

$1.5 billion in damages have occurred across 23 states. Adding insult to injury these creatures also spew phosphorous which contributes to yet more dead zones and toxic algae.

The population of Quagga mussels, larger than the Zebra mussels are contributing to the crashing populations of small fish like smelt. They are snatching the food right out of their diets. No smelt means no Salmon. The salmon feed on the smaller fish.

The quagga has spread through the Colorado River Aqueduct to several Southern California reservoirs. The measles are known to clog pipes and California can ill afford to have one drop of water cut off worsening its already 'crisis' water situation.

California of course has an education campaign; "don't move a mussel" reminiscent of the 90's j-walking campaign "don't get caught red handed" that was popular in the streets of San Francisco.

The adaptability of these invasive creatures to thrive in deep cold waters as well as warm waters is really disturbing. I keep asking myself what kinds of problems these upstarts have caused in the areas in which they are native.

Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes says, "The ecological balance of the Great Lakes is at a tipping point."

The Quaggas colonize the sandy bottoms and deeper portions of the Lakes while the well known Zebra mussels like to attach themselves to smoother objects like rocks and man-made structures like water pipes.

These species suck water in and press it out taking nourishment from the tiny little creatures in the water. This constant, ceaseless filtration of the water is making the water so crystal clear that sunlight can penetrate far deeper than ever before. This sunny situation allows a certain type of algae (cladophora) to run rampant. Now it grows in waters twice the depth as it once did just a decade ago.

These species are starving out the bigger fish by eating the plankton and iporeia which are at the bottom of the lakes food chain.

Henry Vanderploeg from NOAA says ..."The mussels are really messing up the food chain." Shakespeare couldn't have said it better himself.

Photo thanks: Ron Dermott, Zebra mussels
Botulism dead bird Michigan DNR