Editing Great Lakes (section)

=== Invasive species ===
Since the 19th century, an estimated 160 new species have found their way into the Great Lakes ecosystem; many have become invasive; the overseas ship ballast and ship hull parasitism are causing severe economic and ecological impacts.<ref>{{cite news |title=New EPA rules to target invasive species; Invaders have plagued Great Lakes for years |newspaper=The Blade|id = {{ProQuest|380761083}}}}</ref><ref name="ISEA">{{cite web |url = http://www.greatlakeseducation.org/about_isea/?id=204 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130403134459/http://www.greatlakeseducation.org/about_isea/?id=204 |archive-date = April 3, 2013 |title = Our Threatened Great Lakes |access-date = November 30, 2007 |publisher = Inland Seas Education Association }}</ref> According to the Inland Seas Education Association, on average a new species enters the Great Lakes every eight months.<ref name="ISEA" /> Introductions into the Great Lakes include the [[zebra mussel]], which was first discovered in 1988, and [[quagga mussel]] in 1989. Since 2000, the invasive quagga mussel has smothered the bottom of Lake Michigan almost from shore to shore, and their numbers are estimated at 900&nbsp;trillion.<ref name="js2"/> The [[Mollusca|mollusks]] are efficient filter feeders, competing with native mussels and reducing available food and spawning grounds for fish. In addition, the mussels may be a nuisance to industries by clogging pipes. The [[U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]] estimated in 2007 that the economic impact of the zebra mussel could be about $5&nbsp;billion over the next decade.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.glc.org/ans/ |title = Great Lakes Aquatic Nuisance Species |access-date = November 30, 2007 |publisher = Great Lakes Commission |date = March 27, 2007 |url-status = deviated |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070415222144/http://www.glc.org/ans/ |archive-date = April 15, 2007 }}</ref>{{Update inline|date=September 2021}} The state of Michigan has had to develop legislation and regulations to help protect against these invasive species. [[Aquatic invasive species regulations in Michigan]] have been put in place to combat the influx of species.

[[File:Zebra mussel GLERL 3.jpg|thumb|upright|A zebra mussel–encrusted vector-averaging [[current meter]] from Lake Michigan.]]

The [[alewife (fish)|alewife]] first entered the system west of Lake Ontario via 19th-century canals. By the 1960s, the small silver fish had become a familiar nuisance to beach goers across Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Periodic mass die-offs result in vast numbers of the fish washing up on shore; estimates by various governments have placed the percentage of Lake Michigan's biomass which was made up of alewives in the early 1960s as high as 90%. In the late 1960s, the various state and federal governments began stocking several species of salmonids, including the native lake trout as well as non-native [[Chinook salmon|chinook]] and [[Coho salmon|coho]] salmon; by the 1980s, alewife populations had dropped drastically.<ref>{{cite web |last = Smith |first = Paul |title = Gobies up, alewives down in Lake Michigan |url = http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/40240287.html |publisher = Miwaukee Journal Sentinel |access-date = August 6, 2010 |date = February 24, 2009 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110605165415/http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/40240287.html |archive-date = June 5, 2011 }}</ref> The [[ruffe]], a small [[percid]] fish from Eurasia, became the most abundant fish species in Lake Superior's [[Saint Louis River (Lake Superior tributary)|Saint Louis River]] within five years of its detection in 1986. Its range, which has expanded to Lake Huron, poses a significant threat to the lower lake fishery.<ref>{{cite web |title = Predicting Invasive Species in the Great Lakes |url = http://www.epa.gov/ord/sciencenews/scinews_great_lakes.htm |publisher = Environmental Protection Agency |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110205183050/http://www.epa.gov/ord/sciencenews/scinews_great_lakes.htm |archive-date = February 5, 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref> Five years after first being observed in the St. Clair River, the [[round goby]] can now be found in all of the Great Lakes. The goby is considered undesirable for several reasons: it preys upon bottom-feeding fish, overruns optimal habitat, spawns multiple times a season, and can survive poor water quality conditions.<ref>{{cite web |last = Glassner-Shwayder |first = Katherine |title = Briefing Paper: Great Lakes Nonindigenous Invasive Species |url = http://www.glc.org/ans/pdf/briefpapercomplete.pdf |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051227060749/http://www.glc.org/ans/pdf/briefpapercomplete.pdf |archive-date = December 27, 2005 |publisher = Great Lakes Nonindigenous Invasive Species Workshop |access-date = August 6, 2010 |date = July 2000 }}</ref>

The influx of parasitic [[lamprey]] populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal led to the two federal governments of the United States and Canada working on joint proposals to control it. By the mid-1950s, the [[lake trout]] populations of Lakes Michigan and Huron were reduced, with the lamprey deemed largely to blame. This led to the launch of the bi-national [[Great Lakes Fishery Commission]].

Several species of exotic [[Cladocera|water fleas]] have accidentally been introduced into the Great Lakes, such as the spiny waterflea, ''[[Bythotrephes longimanus]]'', and the fishhook waterflea, ''[[Cercopagis pengoi]]'', potentially having an effect on the [[zooplankton]] population. Several species of [[crayfish]] have also been introduced that may contend with native crayfish populations. More recently an electric fence has been set up across the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in order to keep several species of invasive [[Asian carp]] out of the lakes. These fast-growing planktivorous fish have heavily colonized the Mississippi and Illinois river systems.<ref>{{cite web |title = Risk Assessment for Asian Carps in Canada |url = http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas/Csas/DocREC/2004/RES2004_103_E.pdf |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060301092522/http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas/Csas/DocREC/2004/RES2004_103_E.pdf |archive-date = March 1, 2006 |url-status = live |publisher = CSAS |date = 2004 }}</ref> Invasive species, particularly zebra and quagga mussels, may be at least partially responsible for the collapse of the deepwater demersal fish community in Lake Huron,<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Riley |first1 = S.C. |year = 2008 |title = Deepwater demersal fish community collapse in Lake Huron |journal = Transactions of the American Fisheries Society |volume = 137 |issue = 6 |pages = 1879–90 |url = http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/publications/1457.pdf |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130603123219/http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/publications/1457.pdf |archive-date = June 3, 2013 |doi = 10.1577/T07-141.1 |last2 = Roseman |first2 = Edward F. |last3 = Nichols |first3 = S. Jerrine |last4 = O'Brien |first4 = Timothy P. |last5 = Kiley |first5 = Courtney S. |last6 = Schaeffer |first6 = Jeffrey S. |bibcode = 2008TrAFS.137.1879R }}</ref> as well as drastic unprecedented changes in the zooplankton community of the lake.<ref>{{cite journal |year = 2009 |title = Recent shifts in the crustacean zooplankton community of Lake Huron |doi = 10.1139/F09-036 |journal = Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |volume = 66 |pages = 816–828 |last1 = Barbiero |first1 = Richard P. |last2 = Balcer |first2 = Mary |last3 = Rockwell |first3 = David C. |last4 = Tuchman |first4 = Marc L. |issue = 5 }}</ref>