This morning I would like to share some information and get people up to date on some new introductions and range expansions of those already here.

We have some records that go back to the late 1800s.  Most of which are stockings of all kinds of fish by the US Fish Commission as food fish.  We attempt to georeference the records to the smallest possible scale such as a point if we are lucky to get that kind of accuracy.  The next level we use is a Hydrologic Unit based on an 8 digit code.  Here you can see the US broken into these units.  Up close this is what Michigan looks like broken into these Hydrologic Units. Over the last few years we have added about 30 new species most of which are marine and we have a lot more to add I believe based on the number of survey that are being conducted by various groups of scientists.  In all, we have recorded approximately 1100 aquatic species.

Here is how it breaks down by taxa. Most are freshwater, but we are collecting more marine records.  The majority of these records come from 3 sources which are scientific literature, museum specimens, and personal communications with scientists and biologists, etc.  Our database documents single occurrences, they do not have to represent established populations.  Many of the species are native to North America, but have transferred to non-native drainages.

What has the zebra mussel been up to over the last few years?  The first live mussel was collected by an Energy Corporation on a intake traveling screen, very close to where barge traffic flows.  The Minnesota DNR reported zms from Lake Zumbro, still the only lake in Minnesota with zms. In PA there are 3 lakes in the NW corner of the state (Edinboro which did a winter drawdown that was not very successful, Sandy Lake, Canadohta Lake, Dutch Springs Reservoir (east) which may have had both zebras and quaggas).  In VA a recreational diver who happened to be a NOAA employee discovered the zms in Millbrook Quarry, not too far from Washington DC. The quarry is near a large reservoir used as a city’s water supply. The Corps of Engineers reported last week a new infestation in Oolagah Lake on the upper Verdigris River in Oklahoma.  The yellow stars on the map represent the overland transport of boats found to have zebra mussels on their hulls.  In small lakes not including impoundments on large infested rivers, zebra mussels continue to spread.  I have compiled a list of at least 336 lake where zms have been detected but not necessarily become established.

Here is the breakdown by states.  The number in parentheses is the number of counties.  As you can see Michigan lead by far, but they have a volunteer monitoring program that is finding most of these lakes. I am not aware of similar program in the other states.  In states like New York and Ohio it appears that the zms are more widespread. That’s just over 1 lake per county.  Not true for Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.  They are multiple lakes per county, but then these states probably have a higher concentration of lakes per county.

In the end the fact remains that Michigan still has or had 183 lakes with zebra mussels.  Cumulatively over time you can see how the number of lakes add up for each state.  Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin have taken the biggest leaps over the last several years. The quagga mussel is still in the 4 lowest lakes and now in one of the Finger Lakes of New York (Seneca).

We can’t forget our old friend the Asian clam. This small bivalve is still spreading across the US. I don’t know what it’s doing in Canada but would like to find out.  Not very much research on the impacts of this species.  Based on how widespread and numerous it is, there should be.  Last month I was contacted by a homeowner in Grand Junction thinking she had zebra mussels.  She sent me a sample and they turned out to be Corbicula. She was concerned because whatever she had was clogging the irrigation pipes in her subdivision. After a few phone calls I discovered that their indeed was a healthy population in the Colorado River in Grand Junction. 

This is the green mussel, Perna viridis, a tropical marine species.  However, these were spotted in Minnesota believe it or not. They were spotted by inspectors on a large tug-like boat who were looking for zebra mussels.  The Minnesota DNR suspected what they might be so they sent me a picture.  I identified them as green mussels based on the photo and also knowing that the boat had been in Florida. Although they would not have survived in North Dakota, this is still a good example of how organisms can get spread overland. This could someday be zebra mussel going in the opposite direction.

Another mollusks, this time an aquatic snail is making a big splash out west. After the initial find in the Grand Canyon in 2002, a subsequent survey found them throughout most of the Grand Canyon.  Although the snails were identified in California in 2001, older samples from as far back as 1997 where found to have them but had been misidentified initially as a native snail. Researchers at Montana State University seem to be finding this snail nearly everywhere.  They have reported densities as high as 750,000/m2.  Changes since the mudsnails arrival include a decrease in algae biomass and decrease in caddis flies and mayflies with an increase in amphipods in one measured site. There are native snails in the region that most likely will be impacted to some degree by the NZMS.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service Caught the first ruffe from Lake Michigan in the Fall of 2002.  After the first and only ruffe was collected from Escanaba Harbor. A survey a few weeks later caught 2 more ruffe from the same area.  Just three fish were collected, 146, 151, and 83 mm.

The round goby.  Here is list of some of the more recent observations that I have included.  I don’t believe they have expanded their range beyond this boundary, but more are filling in gaps between known established populations.

The bighead carp imported into Arkansas in 1972 and shipped to Auburn, Alabama and began showing up in the wild in about 1984. The silver carp also imported into Arkansas by a private farmer first showed up in Arkansas in about 1973. Both brought in to contain phytoplankton in eutrophic catfish culture ponds. As you can see they are found in similar areas.

Four bighead carp have been taken from Lake Erie already.  In close proximity to the upper Great Lakes are the bighead that have been collected in the Illinois River.  The fish in the photo is from Sandusky Bay in 2000.

The Great Lakes region should also be concerned with the silver carp as it is also poised to enter Lake Michigan up the Illinois River.  None have been collected from the Great Lakes as far as I know.

There are several ways of distinguishing the bighead and silver carps. The first is the gills. You can see how different the upper portion is.  The bighead has a much wider head and you can see the eyes from below. The silver carp has a keel which runs from the pectoral fin to the anal fin, the bighead only has it from the pelvic fin back to the anal fin. And on the bighead, the gill cover is larger giving it the appearance of a larger head.

This the black carp.  It was caught in the wild for the first time back in March of this year by commercial fishermen.  Horseshoe Lake is in Illinois adjacent to the Mississippi River.  The good news is that the fish tested out to be a triploid, in other words, sterile. The black carp is a native of eastern Asia. It eats snails and clams and was introduced for that reason – as a biocontrol of a snail that is the intermediate host of a catfish parasite.  In 1994, about 30 of them escaped a fish farm when a dyke was breached by flood waters. None were ever recaptured.

Hundreds of small snakeheads were collected from the release of two fish in the now famous Maryland pond.

The tench has been around a long time without too much notice.  It was stocked in many places (38 states) more than a hundred years ago as a food fish.  It is still established in a few states apparently.  I bring this fish to your attention as it has recently turned up in the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain.  It may compete with native cyprinids.

The lionfish was a real surprise to find here in the Atlantic.  It is native from Australia to Japan to Micronesia and associated with reef areas.  Because of the number of sightings it appears to be established.  It is uncertain how they first arrived, but probably through aquarium introductions.  Too soon to document any impacts.  But they do have a venomous sting.

    La Cloche, Kawagama, Loimer, and Manitowabing lakes in Ontario

Here are two more small crustaceans found in the Great Lakes region.  This Scud was been collected earlier this year from the Illinois River spanning 4 counties.  It is a marine species native to our Western Atlantic Coast.

There have been  numerous crayfish species introduced around the country. Usually from bait bucket or aquacultures escapes.  In this case it was stock contamination with baitfish.  Maine exotics – Orconectes obscurus, O. rusticus, Procambaus acutus, P. clarkii. About 15 species of crayfish have been documented to be found outside their natural range in the US.

This is a new animal I just learned about, the carp louse.  It parasitizes fish primarily.  This group is found worldwide with 23 freshwater and marine species in US waters. However this species is native to SE Asia.  It has been spread to other continents with shipments of goldfish. According to William Poly at the California Academy of Sciences, it has been found in these states. In Africa, they are parasitizing rainbow trout in culture facilities.

The native crab is Panopeus herbstii in Delaware Bay (Charles Epifanio et al. 2003).

The Chinese mitten crab has not significantly expanded its range over the last few years.  The Port of Ilwaco, Washington is on the Columbia River.

The green crab on the East Coast is reported to have moved from the Atlantic side to the Gulf of St. Lawrence side of Nova Scotia in 1998. And then in 1999, the green crab was collected off Vancouver Island in BC.  A jump from Washington state.  So on the East Coast the crab is from Maryland to Nova Scotia and from Califonia to BC on the West Coast. 

This is a freshwater jellyfish native to China.  I found that it has been collected in Canada in Quebec.  It’s found in a wide range of habitats but most common in slow-moving or stagnant waterbodies.  It reproduces asexually when the water is warmest at the end of the summer.  Most likely it was imported with ornamental aquatic plants.  It was first observed in the US in Benson Creek near Frankfort Kentucky in 1916.  The first collection near the Great Lakes was in the Huron River near Ann Arbor in 1933.  They will consume fish eggs and in turn are preyed upon by crayfish.  Still being found in new lakes similarly like the zebra mussel has been.

The animals I have just shown are sample of what we have compiled in our database with lots of help.  I want to thanks all my contributors and cooperators.  These are some of the main players.  There are many others, and you know who you are.  This is the Nile monitor, related to the famous Komodo dragons, can grow up to 2.5 meters. A population has been observed in Cape Coral, FL.

I know that there are many gaps in our data as we try to document the whereabouts of everything aquatic.  So if you know of species out of their range and would like to contribute that information so that I can continue to compile distribution information, please get in touch with me.  Thank you.