The latest report on the overall health of the Great Lakes shows mixed progress in cleaning up the lakes. The International Joint Commission says there have been some improvements, but there are still many areas that need to be worked on. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
The latest report on the overall health of the Great Lakes shows
mixed progress in cleaning up the lakes. The International Joint
Commission says there have been some improvements, but there are
still many areas that need to be worked on. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
The IJC is an agency made up of Canadian and U.S. officials who
monitor the overall health of the Great Lakes. Every two years, the
agency issues a report.
This year’s report says the two governments have made progress in
cutting releases of many toxic chemicals. And scientists are closer to
understanding how global climate change is likely to affect the Great
Lakes.
But the report says other issues require urgent attention. It calls for
government action to reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired
power plants. Mercury can cause nerve and developmental damage
when it’s eaten in fish.
And U.S. Co-Chair Dennis Schornack says the governments should
do more to stop invasive alien species from getting into the Great
Lakes.
“We still don’t have measures in place that would stop ballast water
mediated transfers of species from abroad; we’ve still got a threat
with the Asian carp coming up the Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal
and incomplete funding for the barrier to stop that invasion there.”
The report also urges scientists to figure out why Lake Erie’s water
quality is degrading again, after years of improvement.
And there are always new challenges, according to Canadian Co-Chair Herb Gray.
“There are new families of chemicals getting into the water. The fire
retardants, which are great for your furniture, but not great in drinking
water.”
This was the 12th biennial report on Great Lakes water quality. The
report says it’s now time for a comprehensive review of the
agreement between the U.S. and Canada to clean up and protect the
Great Lakes.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.
A strange phenomenon has been occurring on a river in the Great Lakes basin. Anglers from Europe have been arriving in growing numbers to fish for something most of the locals won’t touch – the common carp. But that foreign interest is beginning to attract greater attention. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports that some believe carp fishing will offer new hope for a struggling economy:
Transcript
A strange phenomenon has been occurring on a river in the Great Lakes basin. Anglers from
Europe have been arriving in growing numbers to fish for something most of the locals won’t
touch – the common carp. But that foreign interest is beginning to attract greater attention. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports that some believe carp fishing will offer
new hope for a struggling economy:
(sound by river)
Many call the St. Lawrence River an angler’s paradise. 750 miles long, it’s stocked with gamefish
like salmon, pike, bass and walleye.
But the area surrounding it is sparsely populated and a little rundown. It’s never caught on as
much of a tourist destination – until now.
(sound at registration)
It’s ten minutes before the start of the first international junior carp tournament – and the scene in
this Waddington, New York arena is one of organized chaos.
Clumps of teenagers are standing in line, impatient to register. Harried looking volunteers are
handing out instructions and bags of free bait as quickly as they can.
“Your pegs are at the customs house, okay?”
It’s the first time an international carp derby has been hosted on the St. Lawrence – and it’s one of
the largest ever held in the U.S. There are 92 registrants – and they’ve come from places such as
Britain, Italy, Canada, California and Chicago. Top prize is 10 thousand dollars.
Martin James is a fishing correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation and an avid carp
angler. He says in Britain, the carp reigns supreme.
“The attitude towards the carp in the United Kingdom, is it’s the number one sports fish. There’s
more people fish for carp than any other species of fish. It’s a billion dollar business.
(outdoors sound)
For people who grew up around here, that idea has taken some getting used to. Most locals go
after fish they can eat – like walleye and bass.
According to the New York health department, carp is loaded with toxins. And so they’ve come
to be known as trash fish, unsafe to eat.
There’s even a bow hunting season for carp in which the fish are killed and discarded.
Local angler Doug Sholette is one of the marshals for the fishing derby. But he admits he’s never
tried carp fishing.
“So even coming into the tournament, you were a little bit skeptical about…” “Actually about
touching it. I’m like it’s a carp, you know?” “And you’re the marshal!” “Yeah, I guess I…I
thought about wearing gloves. But they gave us a rundown and what the Europeans think of carp
changes your whole attitude.”
That’s what fishing guide Jerry Laramay has been waiting to hear.
For five years, he’s been leading carp fishing adventures on the St. Lawrence for anglers from all
over the world. He’s also been just about the only local to try it himself. Laramay helped
organize the tournament with the hope of convincing his neighbors that this so-called trash fish is
a valuable resource.
“Can we affect the economy in this area? Absolutely. In this general area, it’s an impoverished
area, as far as our economy goes. I mean, we have to use these resources. God gave us the St.
Lawrence River in front of us, if you’re not going to use it, you’re a fool.
(yelling – “There it is!”)
Kids come running down the beach as 13 year old Josh Schrader pulls in the first carp of the day.
It’s a moment of excitement but also a learning opportunity. British angler Phil Saunders quickly
hops into the water with a net and starts giving instructions.
“Okay, put him in the sling…”
Saunders carefully lays the fish on a padded mat and then lifts it up to be weighed.
(11 pounds 4 ounces. “Alright Josh!”)
Saunders checks the fish to see if it has any wounds that need treating. Then he gently releases it.
The Europeans never eat them. Before the tournament, both the adult volunteers and the kids in
the derby were given a crash course in so-called carp care. The reasoning is simple. Take care of
the fish, and the catches will grow even bigger.
But Jerry Laramay says, for him, the need for conservation goes beyond sport fishing. He says
he’s seen a lot of wildlife disappear.
“If we don’t start protecting our natural resources, we’re not going to have them anymore. And
one day the carp will be gone also.”
(We haven’t even caught any big fish yet…)
As the day wears on, a clear winner emerges. Warren Dolan of London, England pulls in one
carp after another, while most of the lines around him remain still. He’s come to the derby with
extra poles, bags of special bait imported from England and expert gear to deposit it over the
water. The kids who live here rely on borrowed equipment. But three of them still end up in the
top 10. And many more are going home after reeling in a 10 or 20 pound fish. Jerry Laramay
hopes the experience will create a new generation of St. Lawrence anglers – and new hope for the
communities where they live.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.
Purple loosestrife's looks are deceiving. It's a beautiful plant, but researchers say it has caused enormous damage in many parts of the country. An imported beetle has now shown significant signs of controlling the plant.
Galerucella calmariensis is a species of beetle being reared and released throughout the region to control purple loosestrife. The bug was imported from Europe and Asia. (Photo courtesy of L.T. Kok)
Purple loosestrife is a beautiful plant. It’s tall… and each cone-shaped stem produces hundreds of flowers. When the plants bloom in mid-summer they can create a sea of purple in wetlands throughout the region, but the ability of the plant to spread and reproduce in great numbers is what concerns scientists and land managers. Over the years they have been working to control it. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush says one way they’re trying to control it is by releasing a bug to eat the plant:
Transcript
Purple Loosestrife is a beautiful plant. It’s tall… and each cone-shaped
stem produces hundreds of flowers. When the plants bloom
in mid-summer they can create a sea of purple in wetlands
throughout the region… but the ability of the plant to spread and
reproduce in great numbers is what concerns scientists and land
managers. Over the years, they have been working to control it.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush says one way
they’re trying to control it is by releasing a bug to eat the plant:
Roger Sutherland has lived next to this wetland for more than 35
years.
He helped build a boardwalk over the soggy marsh so that he can
get a close-up view of some of his favorite plants:
“You see that plant with the big green flower? Yep. That… and
there’s more along here… that’s a pitcher plant. These are insect
eating plants and there’s another one called sundew here… here’s
some right in here…”
(sound under)
But like many wetlands throughout the country, this wetland has
been invaded by a plant originally found in Europe and Asia.
Purple Loosestrife was introduced as an ornamental plant.
It was a
beautiful addition to gardens, but once it took
hold in the environment,
it out-competed native plants.
Frogs, birds, and insects have relied on these native plants for
thousands of years. Purple Loosestrife is crowding out their habitat.
“We’re going to get a lot more shade with this loosestrife.. and so
these plants that are on these hummocks here…
these little insect
eating plants and so on… just can’t tolerate that shade, so we’ll
probably lose ’em unless I can keep it open here… and I am trying
to keep some of it open.”
The plant spreads quickly… that’s because one plant can produce
more than two million seeds that spread with the wind, like dust.
So when it moves into an area, it often takes over creating a thicket
of purple with a dense root system.
Land managers have seen populations of ducks, and turtles
disappear when loosestrife takes over…
And research has shown that the plant can reduce some frog and
salamander populations by as much as half.
So land managers wondered what to do to stop the spread of this
weed.
They initially tried to control the plant by digging it up… or by
applying herbicide to each plant.
Trying to kill the plants one by one is hard work… especially
considering how abundant purple loosestrife is.
But researchers have hope because of a bug.
(Sound of volunteers planting loosestrife)
Volunteers have gathered here in Ann Arbor, Michigan to plant
purple loosestrife.
They’re putting dormant loosestrife roots into potting containers and
adding fertilizer.
(more sound)
When the plants leaf out they’ll be covered with a fine mesh net and
become home to a leaf-eating beetle known as galerucella.
And galerucella loves to munch on purple loosestrife.
The volunteers are creating a nursery to raise more beetles.
Once they’ve got a bunch of beetles growing on the plant… they’ll
take it to a nearby wetland… and the bugs will be released into the
wild…
(sound up)
Linda Coughenour is a member of the Audubon Society.
Her group is working with state and local agencies to raise and
release these beetles.
She says tackling purple loosestrife invasions is a big task – and
governments need help from volunteers to deal with the problem:
“This is a serious problem throughout the entire Great Lakes
wetlands… it has migrated from the East Coast to the Midwest…
so, uh.. the problem’s just too big – so they thought up doing this
volunteer project and they’ve enlisted people all over the state… and
we’re just one of those.”
Volunteers have have been releasing their beetles into this wetland
for few years now and they’re beginning to see progress:
“It’s going really well… for a while we got off to a slow start, but for two
years now we’ve found evidence that the beetles are reproducing on their
own. We see little egg masses, we see larva that are starting to eat
the plants, we see adult beetles on the plants that have wintered
over. And that’s the thing, to get them to do it on their own.”
But releasing a foreign species into the wild is always a concern.
There are a number of examples of bugs released into the wild to
eliminate a pest, but ended up causing a problem themselves.
But before importing a bug that will prey on plants – the federal
government requires testing to make sure it won’t eat other plants.
The tests have been done.
And researchers feel that this is an extremely finicky bug…
Berndt Blossey is a specialist on invasive plants and ways to control
them.
He says the beetles were tested on native plants before they were
allowed to import the bugs:
“And it was shown there that they will not be able to feed and
develop on the plants. They will occasionally nibble on them, but
they will not be able to develop on them and they usually move off
after they have taken a bite, and they move off to other plants.”
The leaf beetle is not the only bug researchers are importing.
They’re also importing two other beetles known as “weevils.”
One that feeds on loosestrife flowers, and one that feeds on its root
system.
Blossey says more than one bug is needed to keep the plant from
growing back:
“Loosestrife will rebound from resources in the root stock. If you
have the root feeder in the system as well, these fluctuations will be
dampened, so loosestrife will not be allowed to comeback to higher
levels.”
(sound of wetland up)
People who admire the diversity of plants and animals in wetlands
like the idea of keeping purple loosestrife in check.
Roger Sutherland welcomes the bugs.
He believes they’ll help him keep this wetland open for the plants,
birds, and insects he’s come to know over the years:
“We know that the purple loosestrife will probably always be here.
But if we can bring it down to a manageable level, where you’re going
to have a pocket here and a pocket there… and you can kind of
maintain the integrity of this wetland system… then you can’t ask for
anything more than that.”
And researchers say that’s the goal.
To help these wetlands reach a balance… so that plants and animals
that have evolved to rely on these wetlands for thousands of years…
can continue to do so.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.
There’s a trend among some Native Americans. They’re trying to return to more traditional diets. Many believe various health problems among Indian populations are due, in part, to adopting a diet much heavier in sugars, starches, and fats than their ancestors’ diet. But they’re concerned that pollution has tainted many of the traditional foods, such as fish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports in the second of a two-part series on communicating the risks of eating contaminated fish to ethnic groups:
Transcript
There’s a trend among some Native Americans. They’re trying to return to more traditional diets.
Many believe various health problems among Indian populations are due, in part, to adopting a
diet much heavier in sugars, starches, and fats than their ancestors’ diets. But they’re concerned
that pollution has tainted many of the traditional foods, such as fish. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports in the second of a two-part series on communicating the
risks of eating contaminated fish to ethnic groups:
A high rate of Native Americans suffer from diabetes and obesity. It’s commonly believed that
the European diet of processed grains, processed sugar, and fatty foods has contributed to the
health problems. So, some tribal members are looking at a traditional diet of fish and game and
the kinds of agriculture practiced by their forbearers. The idea is that traditional foods might be
more healthy for Native Americans.
But it’s become clear that some of those foods, particularly fish, are contaminated by pollutants.
PCBs and methyl mercury have been found in certain fish. Studies show those chemicals can
cause permanent health problems. Tribes have issued advisories, but some tribal leaders are
reluctant to discourage people from eating fish, even if it’s contaminated.
John Pursell works for the Minnesota Chippewa tribe. The tribe has issued advisories about
mercury in fish. But, Pursell says there’s a balance that has to be considered.
“We have to be careful that we aren’t advising people, tribal members, if we say ‘Don’t eat fish
of a certain size or from certain lakes,’ that we’re relatively certain that what they’re going to
replace that protein source with is not going to be more detrimental to their health. And that’s the
big concern.”
Pursell says, for example, his tribe is very concerned about dioxins. The tribe believes that
dioxins are responsible for a higher rate of cancer and other problems. And dioxins might be
present in the foods people in the tribe would eat instead of fish.
“But, we also know from the draft documents that the federal government has issued on dioxins,
that dioxins exist in fairly large quantities in such fatty foods as hamburger and cheeses. And of
course, these are foods that are found routinely in reservation commodity outlets.”
So, if it’s a matter of trading one kind of contamination for another, the logic goes, might as well
eat the healthier food, fish.
But the different tribes have different concerns and no one likes the idea of consuming
contaminated foods of any kind. So, there’s a lot of confusion about the best route to take to
dealing with the health problems among Native Americans.
Kory Groetchs is an environmental biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife
Commission. He says as interest in traditional foods builds, his agency is being asked for
answers.
“They have questions about industrial pollution and their impacts on traditional foods and, you
know, the balance between risks of consuming that food and the benefits of consuming it.”
Groetsch says the Commission is looking for funding to study ways to reduce the risk of
consuming contaminants. For example, one study tried to determine what size and where to catch
walleye with lower levels of mercury. He says more studies like that need to be conducted so
Native Americans can avoid the contaminants that might be present in traditional foods.
“And then definitely point out the situations where there is not concern so people can clear their
minds of these, if they have concerns, and they seem to, about industrial pollution such as methyl
mercury in fish, clear their mind of that and go back to a more traditional diet and eat in a more
natural, traditional way.”
Even those who are responsible for bringing the advisories on contaminants in fish to the
members of the tribe are hesitant. Maria Mabee is with the Seneca Nation in New York. She’s
an environmental activist and concerned about the effects of contaminants on health. At the same
time, she says there’s a limit to what she’ll recommend.
“You know, I can’t tell people to stop using fish for ceremonies. I just can’t do it. I won’t do it.
(laughs) I just, you know, I tell them about the risks, you know. I tell them what I know and I tell
them to make the best decisions for themselves.”
The tribes stress that the health benefits of fish should not be ignored. For many tribes, fish is a
staple. The question to answer they say is, if you don’t eat fish because of the risk of
contamination from pollution, will the food you eat instead be any more safe?
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
