Make It A Fish All

Bad news for fish: viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) was recently found in Lake Superior, meaning that the virus has now been found in all five Great Lakes. (Thanks to TC for the tip)

Lake Effect

Starting in 2010, New Hampshire will be offering a new grant to municipalities and non-profits who want to remove invasive aquatic plants from the lakes they know and love. To be eligible, lakes must have at least one public access site, and priority will be given to applicants interested in pursuing purchase of Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) equipment.

Pay To Play Against The Rules

A man caught violating regulations that require boaters to allow their vehicles to be inspected by park staff was fined $2500 earlier this month. The rules are in place at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in order to prevent the introduction of zebra and quagga mussels into Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir located in between Utah and Arizona.

Musseling Into Texas

Zebra mussels have been found in another Texas lake; officials are concerned the mussels are entering river systems in northern part of state (thanks to W^2 for the tip :-)).

Damming With Feint Praise

There was an interesting new study published in last month's Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment regarding the propensity for man-made reservoirs to act as, well, reservoirs for aquatic invasive species. Researchers looked at five well-known invaders in the Great Lakes region: Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum), zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha), spiny water fleas (Bythotrephes longimanus), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), and rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus). They found that the reservoirs and other man-made impoundments not only hold more invaders than natural lakes, they also increase the risk of invasive species being introduced to those natural lakes. The University of Wisconsin has a press release on the topic, or you can download the full research article.

Tahoe Tango

The Reno Gazatte-Journal is reporting that Lake Tahoe had a near miss last week when a boater showed up with quagga mussels (Dreissena bugensis) on his vessel. The boater's last stop: Lake Mead, site of the fairly infamous first known occurrence of quaggas on the west coast. The boat was apparently decontaminated when it left that lake, but that did not dislodge the mussels attached to the boat's stern. Though officials in California are hoping the hot water treatment killed the mussels, that did not stop them from placing the boat under quarantine until they can be sure it is safe.

Athel Murmuring

The Las Vegas Sun has an article about an up-and-coming tamarisk species making its way around Lake Mead. The athel tree (Tamarix aphylla) is evergreen, grows quite a bit larger than other saltcedars, and until recently was thought to be sterile and therefore not a threat. Following the removal of over 20,000 trees by the National Park Service, that opinion has likely changed (apparently Australia doesn't like it much either).

Post, Nuclear

The Post-Standard is reporting that zebra and quagga mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and D. bugensis) were indirectly responsible for the shut-down of a nuclear power plant on three different occasions last September and October. The James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York relies on water intake pipes from Lake Ontario, which is inhabited by both mussel species. While the official cause of the shutdowns was wave action leading to the clogging of the intake pipes with the green alga Cladophora, the mussels are being blamed for the proliferation of algae since 1) they don't eat it 2) their filtering abilities are clearing up the lake, allowing sunlight to reach lower depths and spurring the production of more Cladophora and 3) their waste products act as fertilizer to further enhance algae production. Plant workers have responded by enhancing the screens and other contraptions in place to keep the intake pipes clear.

Update: In related news, the mussels discovered late last year in the Pueblo Reservoir in Colorado have turned out to be zebra mussels - a new species for that state. (If you follow the ISW Twitter feed, you found that out about six hours ago.)

(Tip of the virtual hat to the Protect Your Waters website for linking to the power plant story.)

My Achy Breaky Yellow Floating Heart

Residents of Halifax, Nova Scotia seem perturbed by the spread of the invasive aquatic plant known as yellow floating heart (Nymphoides peltata), according to this story over at hfxnews.ca. Within the past two years, yellow floating heart has taken over large portions of Dartmouth's Little Albro Lake, suffocating portions of the water and making boat access to the lake difficult. While the plant is thought to have been in the Great Lakes drainage since the mid-1900s, it has only recently been getting attention in the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Unwelcome Mat

From the Daily News in Tanzania comes this update about the water hyacinth invasion in Lake Victoria. The Lake Victoria Environment Management Project, which entered its second phase in 2006, now says populations of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) have doubled over the past year, and the plants now cover over 700 hectares (1700 acres) of the lake's surface. Back when the LVEMP was first starting up, they had reduced populations by 80%. There is quite a lot of diversity in the potential vectors behind this resurgence: agricultural activities that release silt and fertilizer into the lake, untreated sewage that is dumped in the lake, failure of biocontrols due to excessive water movement in adjacent rivers, and car washes along the shore of the lake that lead to oil and polluted water entering the lake.

You can actually observe for yourself the extent of the water hyacinth invasion in Lake Victoria in this feature from NASA's Earth Observatory. NASA scientists used satellite imagery to estimate the surface area of the lake that was covered by water hyacinth. The photos show that the water hyacinth completely took over the lake's Kisumu Bay between Dec. 2005 and Dec. 2006.

For previous ISW stories about water hyacinth in Lake Victoria, go here and here. Thanks to Xris over at the Flatbush Gardener for sending in the NASA link.

Win, Lose or Drawdown

The Berkshire Eagle has a story about a city's efforts to control one lake's problem with Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum). Pittsfield, Massachusetts is so concerned about the invasive aquatic plants in Lake Onota, they are willing to install a pipeline at the bottom of the lake to drain it six feet, a process known as drawdown. Since the milfoil is found mostly along the shoreline, the hope is that exposing this area to the air will cause all the milfoil to freeze and subsequently die off before the spring brings warmer temperatures. Unfortunately, Pittsfield is taking a gamble: if it snows too much over the next few weeks, the snow will insulate the ground and prevent the freeze from occurring. So far this winter, Massachusetts has been without a major snowfall event...