Sea Lamprey Essay

The waterways are connected from the Great Lakes to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which goes into the Des Plaines River and proceeds to the Mississippi River. The fish are able to travel all the way through these areas. The CBC’s broadcast on Asian carp stated that the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that joins Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River is the main focus where the fish have entered the Great Lakes.

Experts are not quite sure how these fish got to the Atlantic. They hypothesize that people have dumped their unwanted Lion Fish in the Atlantic Ocean for up to 25 years. Since these fish are not native to the Atlantic waters they have very few predators. Lion Fish have a negative effect on native fish populations. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission celebrated a day for the removal of Lion Fish. Over 1,000 Lion Fish were removed this day.

It’s a beautiful day at the beach, the sun is shining down on you as you float and drift on top of the waves. As you lay there without a care in the world, you are suddenly interrupted by a massive swarm of jellyfish; also known as a bloom. Not only does this send you into sudden terror, it also causes a much bigger threat to the ecosystem below you. The excessive growth of jellyfish swarm drastically lowers the population of fish eggs in the ecosystem. Because of this, fishermen lose millions of dollars. People in local communities are figuring out ways to solve this mass production.

There are unwanted visitors threatening to make their home in the Great Lakes. Originally coming from Asia, the fish immigrated to the Mississippi River eventually making their way to the Great Lakes. Let’s take a look at the problem, the causes and effects, and the possible solutions of the Asian Carp Invasion.

Today, what once was a scenic lake is covered in chest-high weeds. “ Boaters and fisherman enjoy going to Lake Bridgeport during the summer. But in the summer of 2013 the boat ramps were unusable so the number of residents going to the lake dropped. There are dead fish floating to the shoreline as well as many other wildlife animals. The lake tested positive for Zebra Mussel larva, which is shell like creatures that are very sharp and stick to boats, anchors and docks. The Mussels are very dangerous for the lake environment, but they also eat bacteria so they could help the lake water clear up. If no water is drained out of Lake Bridgeport then the residents of Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Worth could possibly run out of drinking water.

As well as pollution, invasive species are damaging the lake ecosystems and food chains, made fragile by pollution and overfishing. The introduction of a new species throws off the balance of food chains. Some common invasive species include the sea lamprey, Asian carp, and zebra mussels, among many others. Zebra mussels have dramatically influenced and affected stable food chains by reducing the amount of zooplankton and phytoplankton. This presents a problem, as fish mostly feed on the drifters, and so they go hungry and die, leaving no food for larger fish to prey on. In addition to underwater disruption, it affects us as well, but only slightly. Plankton and algae especially are the most productive aquatic producers of oxygen, and by the decreasing population, we lose oxygen as well. The sea lamprey is also a problem, though it is not so influential to ecosystems as the zebra mussel.

     Populations of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas), were first found in the Laurentian Great Lakes in 1988 (Hebert et al., 1989). This species is native to the Caspian, Aral, and Black Seas and the rivers that drain into them but has spread throughout Europe, principally during the 18th century. Since it is restricted to estuarine and freshwater habitats, it is presumed that it was introduced into North America by ballast waters of transoceanic vessels. Based on the substantial amount of genetic variation found in these initial populations, as estimated from electrophoretic variation of allozymes, the colonization of the Great Lakes was by a large number of immigrants and not just a few founders

Some examples include the zebra mussel, sea lamprey, and Asian carp. The zebra mussel first came to the great lakes by traveling in the ballast water of a transoceanic vessel. Over the years, it has spread into the entire great lakes system. They are very dense with contaminants, which causes predators to stray away from them and not digest them. The zebra mussel has had many negative impacts on the ecosystem. A zebra mussel can attach themselves firmly to any solid object, which has caused water intake and discharge pipes to clog. Some other impacts include suppressing native mussels, over clarifying the water, and stripping water from various plankton that native fish eat. Sea lamprey are another invasive species in the great lakes. A sea lamprey is an eel like fish that sucks bodily fluids from other fish. They have traveled to the great lakes on their own by swimming up the Hudson River. They have contributed to the collapse of the whitefish and lake trout fisheries. Some prevention actions have been put in place and include chemical treatments of spawning

Introduced species are seldom a positive addition to an ecosystem as they cause great stress and harm to the populations of native species. Many introduced species become invasive as they have no natural predators in their new environment, therefore they thrive, and crowd out all other animals. Some examples of invasive species in Ontario waters include the round goby, zebra mussels, eurasian ruffe, goldfish, northern snakehead, rainbow smelt, and rudd, to name a few. A great example to show how destructive an introduced fish can be is the asian carp, this species spreads very aggressively and it is considered the greatest threat to aquatic ecosystems in Ontario. These fish grow to be very large in size, up to 40 kg and 1 meter long. The asian

There were Asian Carp found in a water mass in one of the Great Lakes. Imported from Asia, the sliver carp, will out compete native species in the Great Lakes for food. This would ruin the ecosystem in the Great Lakes because the carps will out compete the species that are native to this lake for food causing the native species to die off. In the Great Lakes commercial and sport fishing is an industry that is worth billions yearly. The silver carp that was found in the great lake could have gotten there many different ways. On is that is swam through the electric barrier that prevents carps from entering the water way. Another is that it could have been on about and carried past the barrier. Lastly, it could have been placed in the lake by

As reported by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), Eurasian milfoil, which is native to Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa, was most likely accidentally introduced to the United States through ballast water, which is water from other places that is dumped into another body of water to aid in

The Bighead and Silver Carp are invasive species that were imported by China to control food. They mainly affect the food supply resulting in less sport fish. There isn't a whole lot of Big Heads and Silver Carp, but some were caught in the Mississippi River.

1998). Gizzard Shad and Threadfin Shad commonly feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton and (Schaus et al. 2002) are known to compete with other fishes specifically when they are at their larval stages (Allen et al. 2000). Allen et al. (2000) found that both shad species abundance is positively correlated with Chlorophyll-a and that Threadfin Shad populations are negatively correlated with zooplankton density; although, Gizzard Shad have not been found to have a relationship with zooplankton densities in Florida Lakes (Allen et al.

Gambusia holbrooki or the Mosquito fish originating from the coast of Eastern United States (Cabral and Marques 608). This small fish is very peculiar and can survive in extremely complex environments adapting to high temperatures and may even survive near areas very concentrated in salt known as estuaries. Your diet may also include terrestrial insects that fall into the water, as well as filamentous and unicellular algae and debris. Many of the environmentalists and scientists who have spent years analyzing this species decided to choose it as a test to help prevent mosquitoes from spreading over account as they are high consumers of them. The introduction was quite effective in Rular areas because the effect could be seen immediately since

environment, we as fish start moving to different areas and the whole side of the lake