A Great Lakes Eco 'Catastrophe' That ISN'T

publiusforum.com ^ | 07/31/08 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

The Chicago Tribune posted a story in the July 30 edition that highlights the often absurd hyperbole all too common in the language of environmentalists and eco-watchers. The story detailed the findings of scientists studying Lake Michigan and the ecology of the Great Lakes, one of them saying it is in "catastrophic" shape. Native fish and vegetation are being crowded out by new species and the "Great Lakes are at a tipping point" the Trib warns. It's all presented as some major disaster that should alarm us all, as if Mother Nature is being ruined, presumably by man.

But a closer reading of the story proves that Mother Nature is doing just fine. It is only that our conception of what sort of ecology the Great Lakes should have that is taking a "catastrophic" turn.

The Trib report details the massively changing ecology of Lake Michigan as new species -- like the zebra mussel, the guagga mussel and the round gobie, etc. -- are remaking the ecology of the Great Lakes into something completely new in relation to what it once was. Scientists have found native fish species changing in their eating habits or beginning to disappear with new species adding a new aspect to the chain of life there.

It seems somehow to be alarming scientists.

Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

[Mobile Vulgus]

Oh, the humanity!

[printhead]

Those f’in gobies have destroyed smallmouth fishing in western Lake Ontario. OTOH, the zebra mussels have sure cleaned up the lake.

[ClearCase_guy]

Last year we had stories of Lake Superior receding. It was practcally drying up (Global Warming). I forget the exact numbers, but it was something like: the lowest water level that had ever been recorded at Lake Superior was a depth of 598 feet. We were now at a level of just 598.5 feet -- so obviously this an eco-catastophe.

The article did also mention that the highest level the lake had ever reached was something like 599 feet. But that seemed liked an insignificant factoid.

Gotta look the drama queens in the press.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Wonder what was IN those lakes before they were lakes? Oh, that’s right...trees, mammals, rocks...then the glaciers came along, scraping all of that off and Nature MIRACULOUSLY filled in the holes with water!

Then, the Sturgeon was born and has been with us ever since, LOL!

Funny how the EnviroWackos can never conceive of a piece of land as being anything different in the past. Have they ever looked at a map that shows most of Earth’s land-mass all squished together?

Anyhow, I LOVE my Great Lakes. I hope I never have to be far from them. :)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Great Lakes shipping is still short loading tonnage by as much as 12 percent because of low water levels, compared to levels in the 1970s and 80s. As far as the invasive critters that have arrived in ballast water from Europe, a GL captain who worked for me said a case could be made that the opening of the St. Lawrence in ‘59 probably caused more damage to the Lakes that would ever be made up in additional commerce.

[Smokin' Joe]

Save the Trilobites!!!

Oops. Too late!

[CyberSpartacus]

Enviormentalism is mind pollution!

[BuffaloJack]

Zera mussels are the best thing that ever happened to the Great Lakes. They turned the lakes from poluted, murky and smelly to clean, crystal clear and odorfree.

[Lurker]

Zera mussels are the best thing that ever happened to the Great Lakes.

Unless of course you have to pay to clean them from the water intakes at power plants, water stations, etc.

L

[Smokin' Joe]

Unless of course you have to pay to clean them from the water intakes at power plants, water stations, etc.

Not too hard to figure why a filter feeder would congregate there, though. Maybe a set of pilings a short ways from the intake would allow the mussels to thrive in the current and clean things up enough to keep the nutrient level too low for them to pack around the intake. Basically starve out the ones in close.

[Lurker]

That sounds like a cost effective, logical thing to try.

Which is of course precisely why such a suggestion will never see the light of day at any of the several Government sponsored committees which are 'studying' the problem.

L

[Smokin' Joe]

Which is of course precisely why such a suggestion will never see the light of day at any of the several Government sponsored committees which are 'studying' the problem.

Yep. Cost-effective, and logical are the kiss of death for any idea plagued by grant money, especially if it might actually be a solution to the problem...

[Dutch Boy]

About 9 of ever 10 fish I catch this year is a goby. Is there a good use for them? Other than tossing them on the bank.

[j_tull]

What? No bitchin’ about the non-native Coho salmon introduced in the ‘70s to clean up the lamprey eels? The definition of a weed is a plant growing where YOU don’t want it to grow. Same applies to fauna, I’d guess.