Invading Jellies & Warning The West

The Earth: one third land... two thirds... jellyfish.

This is the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams in for Lester Graham.

A new report in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution says we're already seeing the effects of overfishing and climate change on jellyfish populations. Ann Dornfeld’s been covering this. So Ann what’s happening with the jellies?

*Jellyfish are going to become dominant. Warmer oceans better for jellyfish.

So what are they warning the future of the oceans would look like?

Bleakest predictions suggest our grandkids will have to learn to love jellyfish and chips and if you cast a net in the ocean you’ll come up with a bunch of jellied tentacles.

That sounds pretty bad. Are there skeptics about this?

Yeah there are. I talked to Claudia Mills at University of Washington and she says some scientists are getting ahead of themselves.

BITE

What about people who are going to the beach and seeing a lot more jellyfish washed up than they used to?

Mills says jellyfish blooms appear to be really cyclical... it does look like jellyfish populations around the world may be increasing. But it’s not clear what’s causing it so future of the oceans is still a big question mark.

Thanks Ann!

My pleasure.





STING

This is the Environment Report.

A tiny aquatic pest called the quagga mussel is invading lakes across the country. It’s even clogging up pipes in water systems, dams, and power plants. Shawn Allee reports, in the case of one quagga mussel invasion – people got plenty of warning:




In 2007, biologists declared that quagga mussels had infested infested Lake Mead just outside Las Vegas.


But years before that, park staff and volunteers like Wen Baldwin told folks how to avoid the problem.


Baldwin says some people helped - most people told him to just drop it.

BALDWIN: Oh, it won't happen to us. That's the American theory - fire, cancer, whatever. Oh, it won't happen to me.

But it did happen, and here's how it went down.


Baldwin went to this conference out East where biologists talked about how quaggas clog pipes at water treatment centers and power plants.

BALDWIN: There was a presentation about them and I realized, hey, they could get in here and they could cost me money, you money, everybody money. They could raise havoc as they have in the Great Lakes.

Baldwin got worried.

Quagga mussles hitchhike on boats, and Lake Mead is a boating hot spot.

Baldwin warned people - wash down your boat before putting it in the lake!

BALDWIN: I put on a lot of programs trying to get people on board. Just didn't work that well.

In 2007 it was official – quagga mussels were growing in Lake Mead, and fast.

Now, their fingernail-sized shells smother rocks and anything else underwater.

And, like Baldwin and others predicted – the local water utilitiy is spending millions to keep them out of their equipment.

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Baldwin was disappointed people didn't listen but he's a good sport about all this.

<< creek, creek >>>

One morning, I follow Baldwin as he pulls a wagon along Lake Mead's dock.

Inside, it’s got pipe, sandals, and all kinds of stuff.

He ties these to nylon cord and hangs them over the dock.

<< PLOP >>

He’ll come back later to see whether quagga grow on them.

Baldwin’s looking for stuff quagga DON’T like – so maybe utilities can coat pipes with it and save money on quagga removal.

So far, it’s tough going.

Just consider what HASN’T worked: he reaches into the water and pulls out a quagga-coated skillet.

BALDWIN: They'll stick to teflon.

ALLEE: They'll stick to teflon. Your eggs won't stick to teflon all that well, but quagga mussels will.

BALDWIN: They will.

So, Baldwin will keep testing materials and report results to scientists.


He figures he can still help with Lake Mead’s quagga mussel problem – even if his help didn’t work the first time.

#END#




That’s the Environment Report. I’m Rebecca Williams.