A small vicious predator might soon be killing and maiming tiny aquaticanimals in the Great Lakes. It’s spreading in the ballast waters oflarge ships. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A small vicious predator might soon be killing and maiming tiny aquatic
animals in the Great Lakes. It’s spreading in the ballast waters of large
ships. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
A researcher in Belfast is warning a voracious shrimp called Dikerogammarus
villosus will have a severe impact on the areas it invades. Jaimie Dick says
he’s studied lakes in Europe where the shrimp invasion caused lots of damage.
“Now, what we found was that Dikerogammarus very rapidly spread, almost
entirely replaced the native species, had a very advanced ability to simply
kill, simply shredding the victims to the point that they were gone for–
all but small pieces of exoskeleton and appendage.”
Dick says the shrimp originate in the Caspian and Black seas. But cargo
ships are giving them a ride in their ballast water. Dick predicts if the
U.S. does not strictly enforce rules requiring ships to completely exchange
ballast water at sea. It’s inevitable that the shrimp will invade the Great
Lakes. For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.