Gobies Send Toxins Up the Food Chain

New research is showing that a foreign fish might be aiding the transfer of toxic substances into sportfish populations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:

Transcript

New research is showing that a foreign fish might be aiding the transfer
of toxic substances into sportfish populations. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mark Brush has more:


Fish such as bass, trout, and walleye normally eat small native fish.
Now, these large sportfish have learned how to eat a new foreign fish – round
gobies. The gobies can contain toxic pollutants because they feed on
zebra mussels. And because of the way zebra mussels feed they can take up
a lot of pollutants like PCBs.


David Jude is a research scientist at the University of Michigan. He’s
been studying fish living near polluted areas.


“Yes, a lot of sportfish are eating round gobies, we found them in a lot of
predators we looked at in the St. Clair River – perch, brown trout,
walleyes – so the possibility of transferring PCBs into a
lot of the sportfish that people catch is certainly real.”


Jude says he hopes his research will determine ways to control goby
populations where they’ve become a problem.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.