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Grand Portage band of the Lake Superior Chippewa, located just south of the Pigeon River border on a 15-minute drive along the lakeshore, hopes to finish the plan to keep viral hemorrhagic septicemia from entering the lake and killing off fish that are vital to its people and the parks, said Seth Moore, a fish and wildlife biologist with the First Nation. The results of such a protection plan, which is expected to be finished within a month, will be felt well into the Canadian side of the lake, Moore said, as well as areas of the plan‘s other partners in Apostle Island National Lakeshore in Wisconsin, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, and Grand Portage National Monument in Minnesota. The virus, which does not directly hurt humans, has been detected in the lower Great Lakes since 2003 and is spreading, the Grand Portage band says. Moore says the virus is known to infect at least 28 species of freshwater fish, causing massive hemorrhaging and a quick death. Their plan is considering tightening up regulations regarding use of bait when fishing and adding disease-fee certification requirements for a new fish hatchery on the reserve, Moore said. He said the virus, commonly known as VHS, is believed to have originated from the western Atlantic Ocean through natural fish movement, but probably came mostly from ballast water from ships. Lake Superior is especially susceptible because the virus thrives on cold water, Moore said. The addition of foreign elements into the Great Lakes is nothing new. A coalition of environmental groups, including Great Lakes United and Environmental Defence, said last year that ocean-going vessels are responsible for at least 65 per cent of the more than 180 invasive species now wreaking havoc on Great Lakes native species, the Canadian Press reported. Foreign plants, animals, fish and bacteria get dropped off in the Great Lakes through water held in the ballasts of the ships. Empty cargo ships usually take in some water to keep stable. They often take in the water in such distant places as the Baltic Sea, Danube River and Black Sea, later discharging it when they come to the Great Lakes to pick up cargo. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, zebra mussel, quagga mussel, round goby and New Zealand mudsnails added themselves to Lake Superior‘s ecosystem. Sea lamprey, which came in through ballast water from ships in the mid-1900s, devastated the lake trout populations in Lake Superior. Lake Superior has taken in more ballast water than any of the Great Lakes and once the alien species are brought in, it‘s virtually impossible to get rid of them, experts say. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:49 am |