Current Issues Regarding Invasive Species in the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System

摘要

Since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, ballast water from ships has accounted for 77 percent of new exotic species in the Great Lakes, according to a Cornell University study. And at least 160 exotic species have entered the Great Lakes since 1800, some intentionally and some by accident. Gary Fahenstiel, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Lake Michigan Field Station at Muskegon, Mich., has said that dramatic action is needed now to "stop the army of non-indigenous species offish, mussels and micro-organisms marching into the Great Lakes." Mr. Fahenstiel said, "It's time to close the Welland Canal." The Welland connects St. Lawrence Seaway shipping lanes at the western end of Lake Ontario at Niagara Falls to the rest of the Great Lakes. "The problem is simple with a simple solution," he said. "We have a natural 'choke point' and we can shut off the flow of exotics into the Great Lakes."