"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...
The lead story on the front page of yesterday's Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel,
titled "Sea of Change", chronicles an environmental disaster in the
making.
The zebra mussel, just one of over 180 non-native species that have become
established in the Great Lakes, has been implicated in a host of problems
that include the cataclysmic drop in populations of diporeia (tiny
crustaceans that "for thousands of years been the primary foundation of
the
Lake Michigan food chain"), increased water clarity resulting in explosive
algal blooms......which in turn lead to incalculable masses of rotted
algae
washes up on what used to be popular beaches...., and the proliferation of
botulism-causing bacteria. There's a whole lot more.....in addition to
the
problems caused by all those other invasive species.

There's more.....lots more.....four full pages. The bottom line is that
much money is being spent on research, but precious little is being done
to
solve the problems. New species are currently being introduced into the
Great Lakes at the stunning rate of about one every eight months primarily
from the bilges of foreign freighters coming through the Saint Lawrence
seaway. Legislation requiring such vessels to pump bilges before entering
the seaway is largely ignored.

I have no idea what can be done about it (the material in the paper didn't
help)......nothing, in all likelihood. It's probably too late. Just a
heads up.

Wolfgang
and yeah, it can happen there too.......and it IS.

Out in the far west the Columbia River gets a new species every 5 months.
There things like Japanese Eel Grass, Mitten Crabs, Mud Snails, The asian
clam, the purple clam, the European crab, Walleye,, Smallmouth bass,
....The list gos on and on and on.
Wall Mart is to blame. If those ships were bringing all the Chinese stuff
here they wouln't be pumping the ballast water ( and oily bilge water)
into the river..