Unsettling smallmouth news from L. Ontario and NY

[Eugene]

Something really needs to be done to reduce ballast water introductions of invasive species to the Great Lakes. Catch rates of smallmouth on Lake Ontario down over 80% following goby introduction!

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[Kyle Kochheiser]

I agree 100% It's a very real problem. Do you know if the USFW has any authority in the matter? Is the problem more of an enforcement issue or a lack of regulation problem?

[Eugene]

Right now, it's a lack of effective regulations. The USEPA and Coast Guard sometimes wrangle over who should have enforcement responsibilities (one gets the impression that each would rather it's the other).

[bllayman]

Agreed, Eugene. Nobody wants to be the bad guy. In the meantime, invasive species continue to proliferate.

[Eugene]

...And nobody wants their ever-tightening federal budgets to be occupied by more and more responsibilities.

[mikem]

Not good. Not good at all... Still, I hope they don't try to "correct" the problem by introducing something else into the system to eat those gobies. That kind of management can have worse consequences sometimes.

Really I hope they can improve the habitat in that area maybe that will create some good holdover spots until the gobies are in check?

I wonder what will happen if and when Asian carp get in there?

[Eugene]

Introductions for biological control are a mixed blessing. Frankly, the efforts I like best are those that make use of native species (years ago, I was fortunate to do some work with largemouth bass and northern pike to control carp in wetlands, e.g.). However, we have the invasion of alewife, an Atlantic herring, to thank for the presence of Pacific salmonids (including steelhead) in the Great Lakes. The latest incarnation of Great Lakes salmon/steelhead stocking programs was initiated as an effort to control alewife in the upper Great Lakes.

Regarding Asian carps (and please take no offense, but the term "Asian carp" is a bit of a pet peeve of mine: depending on context, and for no particularly good reason, the term lumps two to four different species as though they were a singular entity), western Lake Erie almost certainly has the most to lose. Check out this recent article by our own Brenda Layman: Invasive Carp Species Threaten Great Lakes.

[Eugene]

Another carp-in-the-Great-Lakes conversation underway at yet another forum where I'm active:
ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/index.php?topic=1195.0

[ecoangler]

Dumping of non-native species in any waters can be destructive. Whether its the ballast of a foreign freighter of the pretty fish, reptile of creatures of a private garden pond.

I was last season when I hooked a koi stretch of Paint Creek. Must have been a rare species to that water?

[Eugene]

Actually not! Koi are nothing but a domesticated form of common carp, bred to have more interesting coloration. Koi and common carp are the very same invasive species.