A tiny invasive species, the spiny water flea, is decimating plankton in the lakes, rattling an ecosystem that supports valuable fisheries
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.: Plankton in Lake Superior are falling prey to the spiny water flea, which is in turn threatening the lake's fish. Fish can't eat the crustacean, because of its spiny tail, which gets caught in their throats.: Daphnia, the plankton under attack by the spiny water flea, keep Great Lakes algae in check, which helps keep the system in balance.
Other invaders arrived by the same route as the spiny water flea, in the ballast tanks of oceangoing freighters. Quagga mussels, another Baltic interloper, have completely transformed the ecology of Lakes Michigan and Huron over the past 30 years. Now numbering in the hundreds of trillions in Lake Michigan alone, the mussels filter about half the lake’s water every few days, sucking up microscopic algae.
The good news on the invasive species front, such as it is, is that new ballast water laws have closed what had been a wide-open door. Since 2008, all ships entering the St. Lawrence River from the Atlantic have been required to flush their ballast-water tanks with salt water, which kills any freshwater creatures that might have hitched a ride. And in 2017, a United Nations regulation mandated that all new ships be equipped with ballast-water treatment systems. The results have been dramatic.
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