Post by spinnerbaitking on Oct 31, 2010 19:39:01 GMT -4
Sunday, October 31, 2010 12:00 pm
A Coastal Resources Manager with the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation says a tiny shrimp-like organism that makes up about 70 per cent of the living bio-mass on healthy lake bottoms has all but disappeared from Lake Huron.
Geoff Peach says at one time there would be about ten-thousand diporeia in a square metre of water.
But he says data from 207 shows they've almost completely disappeared from Lake Huron.
Peach says the decline of the diporeia coincides with the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels in the Great Lakes in the ballast water of foreign ships.
Peach says there's no substitute for fish native to the Great Lakes.
Even worse, the Diporeia are so nutritious that they've contributed to a very healthy population of zebra mussels and quagga mussels.
Peach says the zebra mussel population has pretty well peaked now but Quagga mussels can live in deeper water and cover a larger area and their population is continuing to grow, partly because of a steady diet of Diporeia.
Doesn't sound good
A Coastal Resources Manager with the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation says a tiny shrimp-like organism that makes up about 70 per cent of the living bio-mass on healthy lake bottoms has all but disappeared from Lake Huron.
Geoff Peach says at one time there would be about ten-thousand diporeia in a square metre of water.
But he says data from 207 shows they've almost completely disappeared from Lake Huron.
Peach says the decline of the diporeia coincides with the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels in the Great Lakes in the ballast water of foreign ships.
Peach says there's no substitute for fish native to the Great Lakes.
Even worse, the Diporeia are so nutritious that they've contributed to a very healthy population of zebra mussels and quagga mussels.
Peach says the zebra mussel population has pretty well peaked now but Quagga mussels can live in deeper water and cover a larger area and their population is continuing to grow, partly because of a steady diet of Diporeia.
Doesn't sound good