A scientist collects samples of ballast sediment. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)
A new study finds that ocean-going ships that enter the Great Lakes often carry biological pollution in their ballasts, even when they declare their ballasts are empty. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A new study finds that ocean-going ships that enter the Great Lakes often carry biological pollution in their ballasts, even when they declare their ballasts are empty. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The study by the University of Michigan and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looked at ships coming into the Great Lakes from the ocean. Nearly 80-percent of them declared “no ballast on board” and avoided inspections by the Coast Guard.
But several of those ships were tested by the researchers. They found that although the ballast water was pumped out, there were thousands of organisms left behind in the sediment in the bottom of the ships’ ballast. Then, when the ships unloaded at their first stop, they took on Great Lakes ballast water which stirred up the sediment.
And that made it possible for the biological contaminants to be pumped out at the next Great Lakes port.
The authors of the study warn that more restrictions must be placed on how the ships handle ballast water, or the Great Lakes will continue to be invaded by more invasive species such as the zebra mussel, round goby, and 180 other foreign aquatic species that have harmed the Lakes’ ecosystems.
During the summer, lots of people visit the Lake Erie islands at the southwest end of the lake. But there’s one island you can’t visit. It’s the site of a historic home and reserved for scientific research. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant recently visited Gibraltar Island and files this report:
Transcript
During the summer, lots of people visit the Lake Erie islands at the southwest end of the
lake. But there’s one island you can’t visit. It’s the site of a historic home and reserved
for scientific research. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant recently visited
Gibraltar Island and files this report:
(sound of ferry)
Visitors taking the ferry to Lake Erie’s popular South Bass Island can see a castle-like
structure through the trees on Gibraltar Island across the bay. But they can’t go there.
The island is owned by Ohio State University and home to a research lab called Stone
Laboratory.
Recently, a few reporters got to go where usually only scientists go.
(sound on boat)
Lab Director Jeff Reutter is taking soil samples from the lake bottom to show some of the
latest concerns about blue-green algae… an algae that’s toxic to some aquatic life and
makes drinking water taste bad. It’s been appearing more frequently and scientists think
the zebra mussel might be causing it.
(more boat sounds)
Researchers and students from Ohio State and elsewhere study invasive species,
pollution, shoreline erosion, and other ecological lake issues at the lab.
(sound inside castle)
The scientists who worked in the lab used to live in the structure next door, known as
Cooke’s Castle. The large home was built in the 1860’s by the family of Jay Cooke.
Cooke was not a scientist. He was a banker and investment broker, and he played a
major role in raising money for the Union Army during the Civil War. Cooke came up
with the idea of selling war bonds and raised a billion dollars for the Union Army.
Cooke bought the seven-acre Gibraltar Island in 1864 and had his summer home built on
it. Ironically, while the Union fund-raiser was vacationing on his island, Confederate
soldiers were imprisoned on nearby Johnson’s Island.
Retired Ohio State Administrator John Kleberg has been researching Jay Cooke. He says
Cooke was an avid hunter and fisherman, so Kleberg suspects he would be pleased to see
the science lab there today.
“There is a penciled correspondence where Cooke is complaining about the reduction in
the population of the fish, the bass specifically, I think, because people are net fishing,
you know where they’re taking too many fish out of the lake and the bass population
therefore is decreasing. And that’s not the way you ought to protect the bass population.
So obviously in that context he was sensitive about the need for conservation and how we
fish and how we protect fish populations. So I suspect he would be very pleased with the
kind of work that’s being done.”
Cooke’s daughter sold Gibraltar in 1925 to Franz Stone, whose family donated it to Ohio
State.
Outside, the four-story limestone turret’s crenellated top gives the appearance of a castle.
The inner rotunda walls have held up surprisingly well over 140 years.
But after years of use, the building is in need of some major repairs. Lab Director
Reutter wants to renovate the 15 room building into a conference center.
“It’s interesting too, Cooke’s, one of his sons, was an amateur photographer, and we’ve
got great photos of how the place looked at that time, so obviously that’s our goal to take
it back.”
(ambient sound inside castle runs underneath this section.)
The castle includes a spiral staircase and there’s a gorgeous wood-paneled library that
overlooks the bay…
Reutter: “So, obviously, this would be my office…” (laughter)
Ohio State University is looking for money to make renovations. But that’s proved
challenging. The castle will never be open to the public. Lab Director Reutter says that’s
not its purpose…
“Oh no, this would not be used for tourists, this is an education and an outreach facility,
so it would be a conference center but it would be for research conferences, education
conferences, Great Lakes management, this will never be open to the public.”
It’ll cost two and a half million dollars to make the renovations. If they can find the
money, Reutter and the university say Cooke’s castle will become an even more
important research center. One he expects to draw scientists to study the problems facing
the Great Lakes.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Julie Grant.
This spring, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt was asked to head up a task force to coordinate local, state, and federal agencies in cleaning up the Great Lakes. Now he’s touring the region to learn more. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lucy Nalpathanchil reports:
Transcript
This spring, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt was asked to head up a task
force to coordinate local, state, and federal agencies in cleaning up the
Great Lakes. Now he’s touring the region to learn more. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lucy Nalpathanchil reports:
EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt recently stopped in Buffalo, New York to see
Lake Erie firsthand. Leavitt met up with two local fisherman and he tried to catch some walleye.
He came back empty handed but the fishermen did teach him about how invasive species are
impacting the Great Lakes.
“I had the chance to actually see a zebra mussel. And to understand from
their perspective of 100 years what’s changed in the lake and what their
aspirations are. They told me about wanting the next generation to be able to
catch blue. They haven’t caught any since the 50’s.”
Leavitt will visit other Great Lakes communities this summer. A report by his task force on Great
Lakes cleanup is due next year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lucy Nalpathanchil.
Later this summer, the U.S. Coast Guard will be able to fine cargo ships that don’t comply with ballast water reporting regulations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports on this new effort to stop invasive species from being introduced into the Great Lakes:
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Later this summer, the U.S. Coast Guard will be able to fine cargo ships that don’t
comply with ballast water reporting regulations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports on this new effort to stop invasive species from being introduced
into the Great Lakes:
Ocean-going vessels have transported aquatic nuisances to the Great Lakes such as the
zebra mussel and the round goby in the ships’ ballast water. Those ships are now
supposed to take measures to prevent bringing in more problems. Beginning in mid-
August, the Coast Guard will have the authority to fine ships up to 27,500 dollars if they
don’t submit a report on the measures taken. Bivan Patnaik is with the Coast Guard’s
Environmental Standards Division…
“The movement of non-indigenous species from one area to another is a very important
environmental issue and we’re all working as hard and as fast as we possibly can.”
Critics say the government has not worked hard and fast enough. Patnaik says the Coast
Guard’s new penalties and other efforts to better manage ballast water are steps in the
right direction.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
For decades, aquatic invaders have been plaguing the Great Lakes. They’ve changed the way the ecosystems work and affected the balance of life in the lakes. Most of them didn’t just wander in. They hitchhiked a ride into the Lakes in the ballast water of ships from across the Atlantic. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Carolyn Gramling reports… now the combination of these invasive species is causing changes that concern scientists:
Transcript
For decades, aquatic invaders have been plaguing the Great Lakes. They’ve changed the way the
ecosystems work and affected the balance of life in the lakes. Most of them didn’t just wander in.
They’ve hitchhiked a ride into the Lakes in the ballast water of ships from across the Atlantic. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Carolyn Gramling reports…now the combination of these invasive
species is causing changes that concern scientists:
Zebra mussels were one of those species that hitched a ride in the ballast of a ship. They first
appeared in the Lakes in the mid-1980s. Zebras and their cousins the quagga mussels compete for
food needed by aquatic animals native to the lakes.
Researchers say now these mussels are part of another problem. They’re changing the food web.
The food web is made up of organisms that feed on each other. Usually it’s a chain of small, even
microscopic species that are food for ever larger species. Zebra mussels are near the bottom. For
their food, they filter large volumes of water containing contaminant-laden algae and sediment. In
the process they ingest PCBs and other toxins.
Gene Kim is a researcher in the Ohio State University’s Aquatic Ecology Laboratory. He says that
zebra mussels and a non-native fish called the round goby have helped to form a new food chain
within Lake Erie – a chain that can connect harmful chemicals buried in lake mud to humans.
“A lot of the exotic species, these alien species, have incorporated themselves into the Lake Erie
food web, and there’s a lot of ramifications, in terms of, will they change the cycling of historical
contaminants that right now are in the sediments, but they could be redirected back into sport fish
and eventually, humans.”
Zebra mussels have few natural predators in North America, and they reproduce rapidly. As a
result, they’ve been wiping out native mussels and clogging up water intake pipes in the lake. So
the arrival of the round goby, which likes to eat zebra mussels, would seem to be good news.
Instead, it has proven to be a double-edged sword.
Roy Stein is a professor in Ohio State’s Aquatic Ecology Laboratory. He says the PCBs and other
contaminants, once held captive in the sediment at the bottom of Lake Erie are taken up by zebra
mussels, and then the zebras are eaten by the round goby.
“And then, interestingly enough, round gobies are important prey for smallmouth bass that people
eat, and all of a sudden we have the opportunity for those PCBs that were stored in the sediments
to come up through the food chain and influence humans.”
So, Stein says, those contaminants that were trapped in the sediment now have a pathway up the
food chain.
Gene Kim’s research is confirming the link between smallmouth bass and round gobies. He says
it’s clear round gobies like to eat zebra mussels. But it’s less clear whether bass prefer to eat gobies
over other prey fish. So, Kim devised a laboratory behavior study that let the smallmouth bass
choose between several types of prey, including gobies, emerald shiners, and crayfish.
“The interesting thing is that they actually target these emerald shiners more often than round
gobies, but emerald shiners have superior escape abilities.”
Round gobies, Kim says, just don’t swim away as fast – and so get eaten the most. He adds that
when compared with the stomach contents of Lake Erie bass, this laboratory result is borne out –
more gobies were consumed than any other prey.
Roy Stein says that this puts the system in a kind of double jeopardy.
“The combination of PCBs plus being a slow prey causes perhaps more PCBs to move up through
the food web than otherwise might be the case.”
PCBs have been linked to cancer and birth defects in humans – and they’re not the only
contaminants in the lake.
Other research indicates this new food chain might be helping other pollutants in the sediment find
their way to humans. For example, another Ohio State study finds methylmercury is also getting
into the food web through invasive species. Methylmercury in fish can cause neurological problems
for expectant mothers and other health problems.
Doug Haffner is the Canada Research Chair for Great Lakes Environmental Health and a professor
of Biological Sciences at the University of Windsor. He agrees a zebra mussel – round goby –
smallmouth bass food chain has created a route that exposes humans to harmful chemicals in lake
sediment.
“For a chemical to be of concern to us, it has to be biologically available, it has to be able to enter a
human being or a fish or whatever it might be. Some chemicals may be out there but not available;
we can measure them, but they’re not really a risk to the ecosystem per se. But processes can
change, which make them available.”
Martin Berg is a professor of Aquatic Ecology at Loyola University Chicago. He says the non-
native species have had a similar impact on PCB transfer from Lake Michigan sediment.
“You can think of it almost like a conduit, like a pipe. Now we have a direct link, as you move up
the food web, to organisms that are going to be directly consumed by humans.”
And the problem spreads as the non-native species expand their range. Researcher Gene Kim says
that the implications are far-reaching.
“Not only are we just talking about a Great Lakes phenomenon – zebra mussels have already
escaped into the Mississippi drainage, and right now round gobies – we’re spending a lot of money
to prevent round gobies from entering that same drainage.”
Scientists’ concerns about toxins in the Lakes are not limited to how invasive species are changing
the food web. Researchers say that other changes caused by people can help harmful chemicals
trapped in sediments to return to the ecosystem. Ultimately, they say, each of these issues is part
of a much larger concern: the overall health of the environment.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Carolyn Gramling.
Government, industry, and activists work to inform people about individual threats of non-native invasive species. However, there is no comprehensive approach to reducing biological contamination of the Great Lakes region.
One of the biggest environmental problems facing the Great Lakes is the introduction of foreign plants and animals. Invasive species such as the zebra mussel are causing havoc to the lakes. Local, state, and federal governments know about the problems. But there’s not been much public pressure on the governments to do much about them. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
One of the biggest environmental problems facing the Great Lakes is the introduction of
foreign plants and animals. Invasive species such as the zebra mussel are causing havoc
to the lakes. Local, state, and federal governments know about the problems. But there’s
not been much public pressure on the governments to do much about them. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Here’s a factoid for you. In the United States alone in the 1980’s and ’90’s, it’s estimated
that it cost more than two-billion dollars to keep zebra mussels from clogging up water
intake pipes. Two-billion! Guess who paid for that? You did – in higher bills.
Zebra mussels are an invasive species. That is, they are native to a foreign place and they
were transported here – like many invasives – by a ship. Zebra mussels were sucked up in
ballast water in a foreign port and then pumped out in a Great Lakes port. The zebra
mussels have spread all over the Great Lakes, in huge numbers. They attach to
everything, including intake pipes. They’ve crowded out native mussels. And zebra
mussels eat the microscopic plant life at the bottom of the food chain, making fish more
scarce and causing fish prices to go up.
And that’s just the beginning. There’s been something like 160 invasive species such as
foreign fish, aquatic nuisances, plants, and insects brought into the Great Lakes region
one way or another and each one has caused problems. Dutch elm disease kills trees. A
fish called round goby eats the eggs of native sport fish. Invasive mites are killing off
honey bees.
“People aren’t outraged about it. And they’re not outraged about it because, I think, we in
the public interest community and the government side haven’t done what it takes to
clearly communicate why this is a problem to people.”
Cameron Davis is with the Lake Michigan Federation, an environmental group that
works to get policies changed in the Great Lakes basin. Davis says most of the time
people just don’t understand that because the government is not doing enough to stop
invasive species from entering the country, it ends up costing them and takes a toll on the
natural environment.
“When zebra mussels, for example, get into drinking water intakes, municipalities have to
pay to keep those things out of there. That means higher rates for you and me. For other
people, fishing is impacted. Invasive species getting into the lakes can mean competition
for those native species like yellow perch because of round gobies, because of zebra
mussels and other invasive species getting into the Great Lakes.”
The government agencies which work on these kinds of problems know about them and
some things have been done to try to prevent new invasive species from being introduced
or control them once they’re here.
Tom Skinner is a regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
and also heads up the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office. Skinner says there
are several obstacles to stopping the invasions.
“One is identifying all the possibilities out there. Two is identifying how they get into the
lakes. Three is coming up with a technical solution to deal with the invasive nature of the
species. And four is getting the resources to make sure that you put the technical
solutions into place.”
And there’s another problem – government agencies, much like people, tend to deal with
one problem at a time. For example, sea lampreys entered the Great Lakes after a canal
was opened. They decimated lake trout populations. Government agencies attacked that
problem. Asian carp are threatening to spread from the Mississippi River system into the
Great Lakes through a canal. Government agencies are putting up barriers. One problem
equals one fix.
Tom Skinner’s counterpart in Canada, John Mills with Environment Canada, says
governments are beginning to realize that stopping the spread of invasive species cannot
just be fixed one problem at a time.
“It isn’t a simple problem of just focusing in on ballast water. It’s a much broader
problem. You can get organisms coming in on wood or other commodities that will take
up residence in the basin and create havoc.”
So, there are lots of ways for invasive species to enter the Great Lakes region. But the
Lake Michigan Federation’s Cameron Davis says no one seems to be looking at the
overall problem.
“We’ve got a number of different gateways to get into the Great Lakes, but we have all
kinds of different departments looking at A) individual gateways, or B) looking at
individual species. Nobody’s really there to pull it all together. We have a big
institutional problem that way.”
And there’s no one movement among environmental groups or consumer groups to
pressure the governments to step back and look at the policies that allow shipping and
trade to continue to easily transport invasive species into the Great Lakes region.
The EPA’s Tom Skinner says government agencies are working on it.
“We’re going to continue to work with the Coast Guard, with the Corps of Engineers,
with our friends to the north in Canada and try and come up with a comprehensive
solution to these various invasive problems. But, it’s easy to say; it takes a great deal of
work and effort to do that.”
And government agencies are not getting any real kind of public pressure to do it because
the public doesn’t realize the price it’s paying for invasive species.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
It looks as though the Environmental Protection Agency will reject the idea of requiring cargo ships to get pollution permits before they’re allowed to discharge ballast water. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:
A new way to prevent rust in the ballast of ships might also prevent many alien aquatic animals from being transported from port to port. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has details:
Researchers say low frequency radio waves may be a more effective way of controlling zebra mussels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Scheck has the story:
Transcript
Researchers say low frequency radio waves may be a more effective way of controlling zebra mussels. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tom Scheck reports.
Zebra mussels have caused millions of dollars of damage to power plants, boats and intake pipes. They’ve also seriously hurt native species in the Great Lakes and other inland waterways. Purdue University chemistry professor Matthew Ryan says he may have found a way to control the zebra mussels without harming fish or other aquatic wildlife. In the laboratory, he says low frequency electromagnetic radio waves were found to cause the zebra mussels to lose critical minerals at a much faster rate than they can acquire them.
“It ultimately kills them. There’s a stress response after a day or so. They stop feeding and begin to close their shells and after about 19 days about 50 percent of the mussels in a given population will be dead.”
Ryan says native fish and clams were not harmed when exposed to the same technique. If it’s proven effective in the wild, he says electrical barriers could block mussels from infesting other lakes and streams. For the Great Lake Radio Consortium, I’m Tom Scheck in Saint Paul.
An exotic fish species called the tubenose goby made its way into the St. Clair River after it was flushed from a ship’s ballast water 11 years ago. The tubenose hasn’t spread as fast as its cousin, the round goby, but researchers were recently surprised to find the tubenose spreading further into Lake Erie. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Schaefer reports:
Transcript
An exotic fish species called the tubenose goby made its way into the St. Clair River after it was flushed from a ship’s ballast water 11 years ago. The tubenose hasn’t spread as fast as its cousin, the round goby, but researchers were recently surprised to find the tubenose spreading further into Lake Erie. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Schaefer reports:
The invader was captured this July. The tubenose is related to the round goby, whose population explosion across the Great Lakes has scientists concerned. Round gobies eat contaminant-laden zebra mussels, and then pass those toxins on to sport fish favored by humans. But Jeff Ruetter, director of Stone Lab, says the tubenose goby actually first appeared in the Great Lakes two years before its cousin and so far, isn’t widespread.
“And the concern will be with its competition with other species in the ecosystem. Is it going to force them out?”
Ruetter says the appearance of the new invader underscores the need for tighter controls on exotic species. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Schaefer.
A scientist collects samples of ballast sediment. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)