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
Labels: Dead zones, Great Lakes, migratory birds, NOAA, Zebra Mussels
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
This is a dead dunlin simply fallen from the sky exhausted. The Saemangeum land reclamation project, said to be the world's largest, has been spilling hard feelings, dead birds and a vast array of wildlife upon the edge of the Yellow Sea for years.
The project covers an area 7 times the size of Manhattan, somewhere in the neighborhood of 155 sq. miles. The Saemangeum land reclamation project is only a few miles south of Friday's oil spill,as the migratory "crow flies".
South Korea hatched the reclamation project after the Korean War. Originally the reclaimed land was slated for agriculture. Once the tidal flats, vital to the migratory birds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, were filled the land would increase arable land for rice paddies.
What seemed like a good idea in 1953,for a nation trying to rise up from the turmoil war, turned out to be unnecessary. South Korea was able to produce a massive rice surplus in the face of inefficient agricultural methods. The reclamation project went forward in spite of there being no real agricultural need providing construction work and much needed employment.
The allure of sea side tourism and the prospect of generating perhaps more than 1 billion dollars a year from tourists the Saemangeum project moved ever forward. There was also an enticing prospect of building the worlds largest golf course with more than 500 holes. Countries across the globe have been developing sea side resorts for as long as humans have sought the surf and sand. Forever?
Nearly 80% of the Mediterranean Sea has been developed for tourism. Some places like Valencia in Spain, realized some 20 years ago, it was critical to the environment to reverse the damage that has been done their coastal areas.
More than 1,600 species of life call the Korean Yellow Sea Home. Life in, along, and passing through the Yellow sea range from 70 types of phytoplankton to 500 marine invertebrates, 150 types of fishes, 230 water birds and at least 10 kinds of marine mammals. The reclamation project has resulted in the loss of at least 25% of the total tidal flats in Korea have been lost. Just one of the arguments to continue the project was; more than 300,000 birds that stop at the tidal flats will find another place to refuel. Mallipo perhaps?
"Mallipo is finished" said Choi Kyung-hwan a local fisherman who had come out to help with the cleanup.
Photo thanks www.birdskorea.org
Labels: Hebei Spirit, migratory birds, oil spill, oil tanker, Saemangeum
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
www.pacificspirit.org
Hebei Spirit Oil Spill May Have Dealt Final Blow After Saemangeum to Migratory Birds.