| Aquatic Nuisance Species |
 |
|
|
 |
| Aquatic Nuisance Species |
|
|
|
Little Salmon Fry -What we WANT to thrive!
|
Aquatic Nuisance Species In Oregon A Boater's Primer
Aquatic nuisance species are a serious threat to Oregon's waterways. Introducing harmful non-native organisms into a lake, river or bay can lead to environmental degradation and millions of dollars in control and clean up costs - all of which affects boaters. The Oregon Marine Board hopes the following pages will help boaters learn what they can do to protect their favorite waterways from aquatic nuisance species.
|
|
|
| Overview |
|
Think of all the reasons you're a boater: the recreation that water offers, the stunning scenery of Oregon's lakes, rivers and bays, the thrill of salmon fishing, of water fowl hunting. . . The list could go on.
All of these things depend on the natural balance of aquatic ecosystems. The plants and animals of Oregon's waters have evolved over time into a complex but delicate relationship with each other and their environment. Introducing harmful non-native species into Oregon waters can upset the balance of the ecosystem, hurting the environment and jeopardizing all of the things that make our waterways special..
Take a look at what a harmful non-native or "nuisance" species can do.
 Before |
 After |
Within a short time after the aquatic weed hydrilla was introduced into this lake, it choked out native vegetation, displaced fish stocks and made boating, swimming and water skiing next to impossible.
Ironically, the weed was more than likely introduced into the lake by a boater.
 Aquatic nuisance species most often spread between waterways by hitching a ride on boats and trailers. When transplanted into waters without natural predators, competitors or diseases, these non-native organisms can proliferate, displacing native species and damaging the water resource.
Once established, aquatic nuisance species are costly and difficult to control or eradicate. The best means of protecting Oregon's waterways is prevention. This is where boaters play a key role.
|
|
|
| Prevention |
|
Finished boating and ready to head out? Here's what you can do to prevent spreading aquatic nuisance species.
Inspect your boat and trailer, especially at these points. Remove any plants and animals you see before leaving the waterbody.
|
|
Drain your motor, wet well, and bilge on land before leaving the waterbody.
|
| Empty your bait bucket on land before leaving the waterbody. Never release live bait into a waterbody, or release aquatic animals from one waterbody into another. |
|
Rinse your boat, trailer, and equipment. It is best to use high-pressure, hot water. A garden hose will work if no other option is available.
|
|
Air dry your boat and equipment for as long as possible. Five days is optimal.
|
As a general practice, following this checklist after each time you use your boat will prevent the spread of most aquatic nuisance species. Check out our identification page to learn what some aquatic nuisance species look like.
|
|
|
| Identification |
|
There are dozens of aquatic nuisance species that can harm Oregon's waterways. But there are three that are considered among the most threatening. Click the images below to find out what they are. Learn to recognize these organisms. If you find one or suspect there may be a new infestation, report it to the toll-free Oregon Invasive Species hotline, 1-866-INVADER.
|
|
|
| Contacts |
|
What do you do if you find an Aquatic Nuisance Species?
Report it to the toll-free Oregon Invasive Species Hotline (1-866-INVADER) or contact one of the following agencies:
To learn more about invasive species of Oregon, visit:
If the biologist in you wants to learn more about aquatic nuisance species, check out these links:
|
|
|
| Aftermath of Zebra Mussels |
|
From the Chicago Tribune -January 15, 2008
Botulism takes fatal toll on thousands of Great Lakes birds
Botulism and the infamous zebra mussel are blamed for killing birds -
from gulls to loons - by the thousands
The bird die-off was obvious as soon as Gary Rentrop and his English
setter turned onto the Lake Michigan shore. The sugar-white sand, long
buried in the crushed gray shells of invasive mussels and mats of
rotting algae was now, suddenly, littered with dead birds.
"It was almost like a war zone of birds," said Rentrop, a Michigan
lawyer who recalled his November stroll along a Michigan beach.
Rentrop counted 80 carcasses on a remote mile of beach near Cross
Village, just a fraction of the estimated thousands of dead mergansers,
gulls, loons and other birds whose migration last autumn ended in deadly
poisoning from Type E botulism on Lake Michigan.
The mounting toll on migrating birds has stoked fears among researchers
and ecologists that blame for the deaths lies with invasive populations
of zebra mussels and round gobies -- which arrived in ballast tanks in
the 1980s and 1990s -- spreading over the Great Lakes and effectively
creating a new food chain.
Zebra mussels and their deep-water kin, quagga mussels, filter naturally
occurring botulism and other toxins from the water. Gobies eat the
mussels, and birds, in turn, eat the gobies.
Scientists theorize this new food chain is concentrating botulism and
other toxins and passing them up to predators. The theory is the subject
of a handful of scientific papers and upcoming research proposals.
Whatever the mechanism of transmitting the botulism, scientists in 1999
counted 311 birds in Lake Erie that appeared to die of it. The next year
they counted 8,000, and the toll has remained in the thousands in the
Great Lakes every year since. And instead of fading quickly as outbreaks
did in decades past, the toxin has spread -- first through Lakes Erie
and Ontario, then Huron. In 2006, Lake Michigan was the most recent lake
to be affected and by last autumn was one of the hardest hit.
In spreadsheets, scientists have noted the fatal effects of the annual
outbreaks on more than 50 species of birds throughout the Great Lakes,
from bald eagles to lowly pigeons. The list names 16 species of ducks,
four types of grebes and six types of gulls. It includes double-crested
cormorant and four of Lake Michigan's tiny piping plovers, a bird so
threatened its nests get protection from police tape and fences at
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (this sentence as published has
been corrected in this text).
The deaths of many hundreds of loons have focused new urgency on the
now-annual die-offs that occur from summer to fall. Loons live in small
numbers, are slow to reproduce and are a symbol of northern wilderness.
The die-off that ended in November claimed an estimated 3,500 to 8,500
birds -- including the loons and plovers -- over hundreds of miles of
beach in seven northern Michigan counties. It spread from an estimated
2,900 birds in 2006 along just 14 miles of shoreline at Sleeping Bear
Dunes, said dunes biologist Ken Hyde.
The die-off also sparked preparations for a sprawling and macabre bird
count in 2008 that will involve scores of volunteers combing hundreds of
miles of Lake Michigan beaches over the summer and fall -- to add up,
bury and haul off what are expected to be thousands more poisoned birds
and fish.
"We wish we weren't dealing with this," said Mark Breederland, who as
extension educator for the Michigan Sea Grant research program is
organizing the upcoming response. "We've got enough challenges on Lake
Michigan, but it's here. It's upon us."
The heightened threat to Lake Michigan became clear over the summer,
when shore birds began dying, possibly of picking maggots off infected
fish carcasses that washed ashore.
Then came autumn.
"We were getting so many loons," said Thomas Cooley, a Michigan
Department of Natural Resources biologist who performed necropsies on
the birds. It takes 10 or 12 of the big birds to cover a laboratory
table, he explained. "When you have two or three tables covered with
those, it's pretty sobering to look at that."
Among the birds found dead was one of the most-studied loons in
Michigan, a venerable male with four boldly colored tags on his legs and
a name: C-3.
Each year since 1993, he had been observed at an Upper Peninsula pond in
the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, said Damon McCormick, a biologist at
Common Coast Research and Conservation who studied the bird.
Researchers knew C-3 had spent much of his life with the same female
loon on a secluded pond in a corner of the refuge and that for
unexplained reasons, he had recently left her for another loon on a
neighboring pond in the refuge.
They knew that he stayed behind at the new pond a few weeks this year to
supervise one late blooming chick as other loons began their fall
migration, which may have timed his migration perfectly to a botulism
plume and indirectly spelled his doom. To their knowledge, C-3 had
raised more than 15 chicks over the years, and only once let a chick
drown -- when its leg got caught on a submerged log. For a loon, made
him a good father, researchers said.
The loon's body was found Nov. 1 by an old friend, of sorts, on a
deserted, sandy crescent of Lake Michigan's north shore.
Biologist and Common Coast co-director Joe Kaplan had handled C-3 "four
or five" times in 14 years, most recently in 2006. Kaplan was on his
last day of surveying bird carnage along the shore when he discovered
the body.
"I remember specifically walking up to this bird," Kaplan said. "There
are thousands of thousands of birds that died on that lake, and here's a
bird that had a known history. I had a relationship with this bird. It's
an element of familiarity that you didn't want to find."
Adult loons return to their northern nesting grounds by early spring
about 93 percent of the time, McCormick said. This year, researchers
will be watching for them anxiously. A decline in adult population would
almost certainly spell a decline among loons.
"We expect to see all our birds," McCormick said. "But based on finding
the C-3 male, there's a lot more trepidation of what we'll find this
spring."
----------
By -James Janega
jjanega@tribune.com
|
|
| |
|
|
