U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Summer/Fall 2010 Eddies Reflections on Fisheries Conservation Departments Headwaters 3 American Fishes 10 Watermarks 4 Meanders 30 Eddies Pioneers 8 Vol. 3, No. 2 Publisher Features Bryan Arroyo, Assistant Director Invasive Species in our “Rock Snot” Poses U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fisheries and Habitat Conservation Waters–12 Problems for Fisheries Susan Jewell Conservation–22 Executive Editor John Bryan Stuart Leon, Ph.D.

Deputy Editor Giant Salvinia–16 Conservation in a Richard Christian Bob Pitman Quagga-mire–26 David Britton, Ph.D. Editor Craig Springer

Associate Editor Kenai’s Most Lauren Merriam Unwanted–20 Contributing writers Jeffry Anderson Jeffry Anderson Ken Peters David Britton, Ph.D. Bob Pitman John Bryan Randi Sue Smith Ricky Campbell Joe Starinchak Jason Goldberg Aaron Woldt Susan Jewell Bradley A. Young. Ph.D. Thomas McCoy

Editorial Advisors Mark Brouder, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ryck Lydecker, Boat Owners Association of the United States Mark Maskill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Hal Schramm, Ph.D., U.S. Geological Survey Michael Smith, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (retired) Denise Wagner, U.S. Fish and Wildflife Service

Assistant Regional Directors – Fisheries Julie Collins (Acting), Pacific Region Robert Clarke (Acting), Pacific Southwest Region Jaime Geiger, Ph.D., Northeast Region Linda Kelsey, Southeast Region Mike Oetker, Southwest Region Steve Klosiewski (Acting), Alaska Region

Sharon Rose (Acting), Mountain–Prairie Region Service Mike Weimer, Midwest Region Park

Contact

For subscriptions, visit National www.fws.gov/eddies, email [email protected] Pythons have invaded the Florida Everglades. Read about call 505 248-6867, or write to: one man’s snake experience, returning home to Florida in Craig Springer this issue’s Meanders, page 30. USFWS Fisheries RM 9100D 500 Gold Ave. SW Albuquerque, NM 87103

Design The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Blue Heron U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Summer/Fall 2010 is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, Communications Eddies Reflections on Fisheries Conservation wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit On the Cover: Giant salvinia, an invasive of the American people. aquatic plant, has taken hold in lakes and CONSER VING bayous in the South. See page 16. USDA photo

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

2 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Headwaters Join Us to Make a Difference This Task Force, made up of other federal agencies and regional panels whose participants are private By Bryan Arroyo enterprises, tribal governments and state governments, steers our work on the water. The Task Force is energized and looking at all avenues to better address invasive species. Legislative authority by itself isn’t enough. We are enjoined fully with limited resources, but I fear it’s a battle we are currently losing.

These points are illustrated in this issue of Eddies in the story by David Britton, titled “Conservation in a Quagga- mire.” Dr. Britton refers to the quagga and zebra mussel invasions that occurred in the Great Lakes via ballast release, and then spread to points across the country as an “ecological cancer.” The metaphor is fitting. In the singular, these tiny mussels are unimpressive. In the aggregate—and they do amass upon one another in a large way—these little organisms are very destructive to USFWS native fish fauna, and to public water works. Aquatic invasive species are a clear and present danger to the aquatic biota of our country. It’s by boats, boots, Writer-biologist Susan Jewell punctuates the point in her and ballast that aquatic invasive species make their story, “Invasive Species in our Waters.” Jewell gives us an way into our waters. Once established, they can spread umbrella look at the issue in the U.S., and strikes a chord, aggressively and break links in the food chain. saying “Because water provides such a perfect pathway for pernicious pests, our continent is both blessed and Whether the invasive organisms are plants, bugs, cursed.” microorganisms, fish, snakes, snails, crabs, mussels, or algae—and the examples are many—the outcome is The ravages of injurious organisms will not be easily quite often a short-circuit in an ecosystem’s “wiring.” overcome. Witness the story on giant salvinia by retired Invasive species can change water quality, and they biologist, Bob Pitman. The Brazilian plant that can can be the vectors for novel diseases moving into spread by boats turns lake coves, bayous, ponds, and new waters. Invasive fish species can replace or duck marshes into fields of the leafy plant in short order. eliminate native fishes entirely, and this is particularly Controlling the plant is no easy matter. disconcerting when those native species are listed as threatened or endangered. The jury is still out on what “rock snot” may do to our fisheries. Also known as didymo, John Bryan tells how Then there are the costs. Invasive species can make this single-celled diatomaceous algae moves by boots, and your wallet thinner. Not only do invasive species tax grows, and what it may do in the future. It’s not much to native fish and plants by disrupting the ecosystem, look at, but what it may do to native ecosystems remains some devastate private property, damaging your boats, to be seen. marinas, irrigation systems, or public water works— and the expenses are passed on to consumers. In the All of the invasive species, terrestrial or aquatic, have end, we all pay. This is why we are aggressively tackling one thing in common: you. It’s you who can help stop the this threat to our native aquatic systems head on with spread. Through our social marketing efforts, as you will a multi-pronged approach. We are currently examining see on the back cover, we are attempting to educate folks all existing authorities both within and outside the throughout industry, through consumers, and through U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to harness all of these you the reader, that it is they who can make a difference. authorities to better protect our aquatic systems. This If there’s any message to take home from this issue of approach includes prevention, control, and eradication Eddies, that’s the one. You can make a difference. strategies. The 1990 Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act gave us the legislative means to address invasive species. It was through Bryan Arroyo is the Assistant Director for Fisheries this legislation that we created the Aquatic Nuisance and Habitat Conservation in Washington, DC. Species Task Force, which I co-chair alongside with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation RunningWatermarks Head Text

Northern pike out, rainbow trout in Department Game and Fish California California Department of Fish and Game biologists apply CFT Legumine to kill unwanted, invasive northern pike in Lake Davis. Where northern pike are not native, and affect several sport fish species. from its American River Hatchery, they’re not wanted. Case in point, Northern pike also threatened to with a million additional trout stocked Lake Davis, California. Northern migrate over the spillway and spread in later years. pike were illegally introduced in into the Sacramento San Joaquin the watershed, and showed up in Delta, potentially damaging a much Removing invasive pike worked. Lake Davis in 1994. The California larger sport fishery. This prompted Recent creel surveys show that Department of Fish and Game the CDFG to plan another pike average catch per angler-hour (CDFG) eradicated northern eradication. They used Dingell- increased from 0.12 fish to 0.31 fish, pike with the piscicide rotenone Johnson Sport Fish Restoration turning Lake Davis back into an three years later. By 1999, CDFG Act funds to plan, buy materials, excellent trout fishery. biologists rediscovered northern test water quality, and conduct fish pike in Lake Davis. Following the surveys before and after treatment. Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish controversial use of rotenone and a Restoration Act funds come from lawsuit, biologists sought to remove In September 2007, CDFG personnel federal manufacturing excise taxes northern pike again, but without eradicated northern pike from on fishing tackle, trolling motors, rotenone. Lake Davis, and nearby streams and motorboat fuels, distributed to using the piscicide, CFT Legumine. state fish and wildlife agencies. These Through various means, about When biologists determined several funds support fishery management 65,000 northern pike were taken months later that the lake was free of that benefits anglers. F Thomas McCoy from the lake. But pike populations chemicals and pike, CDFG stocked continued to dramatically rebound, 31,000 Eagle Lake rainbow trout

4 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Running Head Text

Internet provides global connection to fish health survey A new website allows anyone to access data from a nationwide survey focused on the health of America’s fisheries. Through the National Wild Fish Health Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service examines fish for important disease-causing pathogens and parasites in America’s lakes and streams. Knowing where pathogens occur is a first-line defense to prevent disease.

Since 1996, nearly 220,000 fish have been examined from some 4,600 distinct sites in 2,560 water bodies. In all, fish health practitioners examined more than 260 fish species. Those fishes were tested at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s nine Fish Health Centers and the results posted on the website. The website allows users to query Bradley/USFWS using a search form and an interactive map, download reports, and create custom maps. Search results may Joshua be saved for use in spreadsheet applications or “earth This online map shows where Largemouth Bass Virus has browsers,” such as Google Earth®. To find out what’s in been detected by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists your watershed, go to www.fws.gov/wildfishsurvey. F at nine Fish Health Centers around the country. The map Ken Peters is delineated by watershed. The virus has been found in watersheds colored pink.

FEATURED FACILITY Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Resources Office

Where: Essex Junction, Vermont When: Established in 1992

Then: The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Resources Office (LCFWRO) was established for fisheries conservation in the Lake Champlain Special Designation Act of 1990, and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Lake Champlain Basin Program Act of 2002.

Now: Biologists with the LCFWRO restore populations of lake trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon in Lake Champlain and its Vermont, New York, and Quebec tributaries. Both species were extirpated more than a century ago, yet in cooperation with our partners in Vermont and New York, the Bouffard/USFWS LCFWRO has established new populations through stocking. Stocking is Wayne only part of the restoration work. Biologists spend more time controlling An adult sea lamprey sucks on the invasive sea lamprey—a nuisance, an eel-like, parasitic fish that if its palm of field technician, Patrick population is not suppressed, would decimate the trout and salmon. Through McLaughlin, as it does when it the use of barriers that prevent lamprey spawning, traps that intercept parasitizes lake trout and Atlantic adults, and piscicides that kill larval lampreys, restoration of trout and salmon salmon, causing stress and progresses. Innovative and effective lamprey controls that minimize the wounds that often result in the environmental impact have paid off. The lamprey population has been more host’s death. than halved over the past five years, while the size and number of lake trout and Atlantic salmon have increased. F Bradley A. Young, Ph.D.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation Running Head Text

Newts and frogs susceptible to mass die-off Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fish Health Center in Lamar, Pennsylvania, teamed with Penn State University staff, to test frogs and newts from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The intent: find diseases of national concern.

The researchers tested wood frog, gray tree frog, spring peeper, and Kentucky red-spotted newt—111 amphibians of in all—for the deadly Chytrid fungus and viral pathogens. Using leading-edge technology, laboratory analysis revealed that some of Barnes/University the animals had characteristics of an Iridovirus; others had traits Tom characteristic of “frog virus 3” and Red-spotted newts, like this one, were studied by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife other potentially serious disorders. Service’s Lamar Fish Health Center, in Pennsylvania. Findings were published in Chytrid fungus was not found. the Journal of Aquatic Animal Health. Their findings were published in Aquatic Animal Health, where they was detected in the laboratory could the scientific periodical Journal of noted no die-offs in the field, but what cause mass amphibian mortality. F Craig Springer Asian carp caught above electric barrier Taiwan satellite to On June 22, 2010, a contract This is the first Asian carp captured monitor Ohio River commercial fisher hired by Illinois above the U.S. Army Corps of DNR caught a single, 19.6-pound Engineer’s electric barrier system, waters weeds male bighead carp in Lake Calumet, and the second specimen captured in Hydrilla. It’s an invasive plant from in the Chicago Area Waterway the CAWS since December 2009. Africa that’s made its way into the System (CAWS). Lake Calumet, Ohio River basin, probably hitching above T.J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, is The recent catch occurred during a ride on a boat trailer. It has taken about six miles from Lake Michigan. routine sampling by the Asian Carp root, and so has the Asian-native Regional Coordinating curly leaf pond weed, both in the Committee (RCC). RCC backwater bays of the big river, member agencies—including where young native fish live. The Illinois DNR, U.S. Army unwanted weeds could confound fish Corps of Engineers, and management. But now, thanks to a the U.S. Fish and Wildlife partnership with multiple state and Service—began an federal agencies under the auspices Register immediate rapid-response to of the Ohio River Basin Fish Habitat remove any additional Asian Partnership—and the country of Journal carp from Lake Calumet, if Taiwan—the Carterville Fish and present. The USFWS will Wildlife Conservation Office, Illinois, continue to work directly will oversee an aquatic weed survey Young/State with its agency partners to that will save time and money and control Asian carp in the Chris target control efforts the length of the F An Asian carp leaps from the wake of a passing CAWS. Aaron Woldt river. Taiwan’s Formosat-2 satellite boat. will provide the means to monitor the underwater weeds. F Richard Christian

6 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Running Head Text

Snakehead eradication proving tough in Arkansas “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” holds true for the northern snakehead. In its native range in Korea, the fish with a snake-like appearance is a highly sought food- fish, viewed as a delicacy. Not so, in Arkansas. Here it’s an unwanted predator with potential to out- Trammel/Bugwood.org

compete and replace native species. It Susan eats fish, almost exclusively. Aptly named, the invasive northern snakehead has been found in six states. The snakehead made national news Program and the Arkansas Game and a year, and adults guard their young a in 2002, when a specimen was caught Fish Commission in the 4,000-acre long time. in a Maryland pond, and then in Piney Creek basin, in March 2009. 2008, the fish caused a shudder in Biologists continue to monitor the Arkansas. Like a scene from a bad After removing fish with a piscicide, snakehead population to better B-movie, another specimen was found no snakehead were found in the first target their eradication in the squirming on a country road, left follow-up. But that didn’t last. By Arkansas creek. The snakehead has behind with receding flood waters. October, snakehead had once again also invaded waters in Florida, New That led to an intense eradication appeared in Piney Creek. Snakehead York, California, Pennsylvania, and effort by employees from the U.S. are fruitful, spawning up to five times Massachusetts, proving the worth of Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fisheries prevention over cure. F Ricky Campbell

FROM THE ATTIC Notes from D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives Smith/USFWS

You had to be “picky” to work in the National Fish Sue Hatchery System back in the old days. The pickier the better, or perhaps better stated, the greater the success Randi at culturing fish. Hatchery workers learned that dead Picking dead eggs was a tedious task, often done by wives of fish eggs, if left among the live eggs, spread fungus and hatchery employees, with tools both crude and creative. killed more eggs. The dead eggs had to be removed, Another pair is cut from sheet brass, neatly shaped and without harming the live eggs. The technology of and bent to form tongs with dished rings at the ends. mechanical egg sorters, which are used today, was years away. At egg-picking time, extra staff hired on, and could be found nearby among the wives and children of A reliable but slow method of egg removal was hand - the hatchery workers. Many lived on the hatcheries, picking. Need spawned special tongs. These tweezers- conveniently close. One photograph housed in the like devices had small loop rings at the working ends Archives shows young women picking eggs in the to pick up an individual egg. With great tedium, one better light at the hatchery windows. One suspects by one, the bad eggs could be removed from the good that these young ladies knew the photographer eggs. Some of the egg tongs were finely crafted, was coming, as they wear white lacey collars that carved of flexible wood with brass loops fastened to seem more suited to afternoon calls than handling the ends, smoothed and finished. At the other end of trays of fish eggs. Photographers were rare, and the craftsmanship, but high on the ingenuity scale, are the egg pickers would have wanted to look their best. pair made from a hacksaw blade. Bent in half, rough Eventually, automation antiquated hand-picking, but at metal loops are soldered on the ends of the blade. least seven pairs of egg tongs have survived the years, Eggs being delicate, the saw teeth were smoothed off. and live in our collection. F Randi Sue Smith

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation Pioneers By Craig Springer Barton Warren Evermann

History may not repeat itself, exactly. age with his parents to an Indiana But it does at least rhyme. farm where he grew up, studied, and married. Despite his world travels and You’ll hear a resonance in the a career that would plant him on the mentored relationship Barton Pacific Coast later in life, Evermann Warren Evermann had with his considered Indiana his home. The ichthyology professor, David Starr Evermann farm near Flora, Indiana, Jordan, a rapport like poet-laureate is still in the family where Sam, Jane, Robert Frost had with writer and son John Evermann Zook still Wallace Stegner; Plato to Socrates; work the land. Archimedes to Galileo; Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker. The Teaching was Evermann’s first affinity built between Evermann and profession, starting at age 18, and Jordan yielded a mountain of scientific one he practiced intermittently the literature in fisheries conservation rest of his life. From 1871 to 1879, he well beyond the classroom. Both were taught in Indiana schools, and then full-fledged members of the gilded age ventured west to California for a two- of American ichthyology. From it all, year teaching stint. He returned to Barton Evermann created a greater the Hoosier state in 1881, and enrolled good, employed by the U.S. Fish and at Indiana University to study Research.calacademy.org Wildlife Service’s ancestral Fisheries ichthyology under Jordan. Evermann Barton Warren Evermann posed Program, starting in 1886. and Jordan had been acquainted for this portrait in the early 1900s, since 1877, when he and his wife took about the time he led a U.S. Bureau of Barton Evermann was born in Iowa an extended fish-collecting trip with Fisheries crew to the Sierra Nevadas to in 1853, and moved at a very young learn more about an unknown trout. him through Kentucky to Georgia. From 1883 to 1885, Evermann took a break from the university to serve as the superintendent of Carroll County schools. He finished his first degree in 1886, and published one of his first papers, “Fishes observed in the vicinity of Brookville, Franklin County, Indiana” in the Bulletin of the Brookville Society of Natural History. A cascade of scientific papers, books and magazine stories on fish, birds and mammals would follow for the next 45 years.

Evermann continued his studies at Indiana University while simultaneously chairing the biology department at Indiana State Normal School, thusly earning a master’s and then a doctorate by 1891. The year he earned his Ph.D., and through his connection with Jordan, Evermann the ichthyologist took a Research.calacademy.org job as a research scientist aboard the Written in Evermann’s hand, this map sketches out the route that he took to find two new species of trout in the Sierra Nevadas in 1904. Albatross and steamed to the Bering

8 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Barton Warren Evermann

Sea. The ship was the world’s first vessel built specifically for scientific inquiry, operated by the U.S. Navy for the U.S. Fish Commission, the predecessor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

During Evermann’s tenure with the Fish Commission (called the Bureau of Fisheries after 1903), he traveled all over the U.S. and the world studying things aquatic. His capabilities as a scientist and administrator led to his rise in the agency. Based in Washington DC, he was the Fish Commission’s Ichthyologist from Fisheries of 1891 to 1914. He led the Division of Statistics and Methods of Fisheries Bureau in 1902 and 1903. From 1903 to 1910, he was the Chief of Scientific Inquiry, U.S. simultaneously serving as Curator of Barton Evermann named this fish, Roosevelt’s trout, in honor of President Fish at the U.S. National Museum. Theodore Roosevelt following his U.S. Bureau of Fisheries expedition in 1904. Its distinction as a unique species was later revised by other scientists. From 1910 to 1914, he was the Chief of Alaska Fisheries. All the while, In a fashion very much like the Evermann left the Bureau of Evermann lectured on fisheries capabilities of the current Fisheries Fisheries in 1914 to direct the science periodically at Cornell and Program’s 67 Fish and Wildlife California Academy of Science, Yale universities, and somehow found Conservation Offices around the where he continued to research the time to serve as Vice President country today, Evermann mounted an and publish on fisheries, with and of the Washington DC, board of expedition to learn more about these without Jordan. He held that job education from 1906 to 1910. presumed rare trout. On horseback, until his death in 1932, and his Evermann led a Bureau of Fisheries remains were interred near his old During Evermann’s tenure with the team to the high country to learn Indiana farm. All told, he published Fish Commission and the Bureau, more. nearly 400 scientific papers, mostly he was a prodigious writer, much of related to fishes, and many being what he produced co-written with his What culminated were two new descriptions of new species. former professor. Most any fisheries species of fish: Roosevelt’s trout and professional is familiar with “Jordan White’s trout. Evermann determined The Evermann name lives and Evermann” in the scientific that California’s Kern River contained on in organisms named by literature. But Evermann also two rare fishes, which he named others in his honor: four fish authored scientific papers alone. Salmo roosevelti and S. whitei, to genera include Evermanni, honor the president and the citizen- Evermanella, Evermanolus, and “The Golden Trout of the Southern conservationist. Evermann’s “Golden Evermannichthys. Perhaps the High Sierras,” is one such paper, Trout” paper laid out potential most significant namesake is found published by the Bureau of Fisheries conservation measures for the fish. on maps, the highest point in the in 1906. Stuart Edward White’s book, Other scientists have since revised the Archipelagos—Mt. Evermann— The Mountain caught President species designations, but Evermann’s to go along with the mountain of Teddy Roosevelt’s attention in 1904, descriptions remain a testament to his scientific research that spanned a where White penned a concern for a capabilities in the field and at a desk. career. F native trout in the Sierras. Roosevelt directed Evermann to investigate.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation American Fishes Common carp By Craig Springer

Common carp were introduced into the United States in the 19th century, and have become common throughout the country. They live 38 years and grow to nearly 90 pounds. If the common carp was a vegetable, sport on the end of a line. If you’re distributed of minnows, if not all it would be the Brussels sprout. an angler, you’ve probably caught freshwater fish species, owing to its The dark green plant has been one. These things are certain: it’s a natural attributes and the works of domestically cultivated since the days naturalized American fish, and the people. When Linnaeus set a name to of ancient Rome. The small ball of common carp is just that—common. the common carp, it had already been leaves appeared in early writings, transplanted to Europe for food. and took its common name for its The Swedish medical doctor, Carl popularity on the table in Belgium. Linnaeus, who named you Homo The common carp appears in writing There is no discernable reason to eat sapiens, also penned the scientific in China circa 500 BCE. Fast forward the vegetable that smells of sulfur, name of the common carp. In his 1758 a thousand years to the Common Era yet the cabbage cultivar made its way edition of Systema Naturae he called and common carp show up in writing to America in the 1800s with French it Cyprinus carpio to fall in with in a circular to government officials settlers landing in Louisiana. other members of the minnow family, in the Ostrogothic Kingdom, circa the the Cyprinidae. The nomenclature year 500. Cassidorus, the secretary to You either like Brussels sprouts, comes from the birthplace of King Theodoric of Ostrogoth, ordered or you don’t. And so it is with the Aphrodite, or Cypris, the goddess of high governing officials over present- common carp. It is seen as the love and beauty, the Island of Cyprus. day southern Europe to advance the greatest fish transplant attempt ever The common carp is one of hundreds supply of common carp for the king’s taken on, or the worst of government- of minnow species worldwide, and table. sponsored ecological disasters. The among the largest-growing of them fish is either a nuisance, or great all. And it is certainly the most widely 10 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 less cost than bovine or fowl on lands predators, can’t see so well in the more suited to water than grains. muddied water.

According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife The common carp gains a competitive Service historian Dr. Mark Madison, edge in that a mature female Baird was not only a consummate produces about two million eggs. scientist, but also an astute politician They are spring spawners. Usually by (see Eddies Special Issue 2009). May in the South both sexes gather Baird cultured common carp in the in the shallows of streams or lakes capital city, in ponds at the base of where they roil en masse in weedy the Washington Monument. He made bays or the big river backwaters. fingerlings available to Congressmen Pods of a few males fertilize eggs of to send to their constituents back one or two females at a time. Their home. Railroads veined over the fertilized eggs stick to vegetation landscape and sent common carp and hatch in a week, and the young overland in Fish Commission railcars. set about eating microscopic plants and animals. Their diet soon turns to The fish may have been suitable for plants and roots, mollusks and bugs, the king’s table in a far-off land, at a small fish, eggs, and carrion, and they time far removed from 19th century muddy the waters as they go along. America. But the populace in this Granted, not every egg is fertilized republic resisted. Even recipes and not every fertile egg grows into published by the Fish Commission a mature fish. But this much is true, couldn’t sway sentiment. Common young common carp are fast-growing carp never gained favor. and can out-compete young native

Tomelleri minnow and sunfish species for food

Joe Throughout the country now, common and space. carp swim just about anywhere there is water, be it flowing or flat, clear or Something else to chew on: what polluted, a farm creek in the Midwest, would the American palate be without The big minnow had been or a reservoir in the South. They Brussels sprouts? Well, there are domesticated by the time the fish live in every state in the continental those who see no reason to have the arrived in the U.S. The common U.S., that ubiquity due not only to the vegetable on the plate. What it lacks carp was probably established in desires of Baird and the conformity of in taste, though, it makes up for in the Hudson River basin by 1850. the early state fish commissions, but nutrients. American waters would be But the decade of the 1880s has to the fish itself. vastly different had the swimming been fixed as the most successful nuisance not become so common. But effort, one that tipped the scale in Warm and muddy waters are what a fish that grows to 90 pounds, lives favor of the invasive minnow taking common carp like. If they invade 38 years, and is surprisingly wary hold in American waters. With clear water, they will soon turn it off- has its adherents of ardent anglers Spencer Baird leading the U.S. Fish color. They make a living by rooting who take the fish by bow, fly, gear, or Commission, common carp flourished. and wallowing in the bottoms looking spear. Baird knew that the fish was a for food, aided by the barbels in the delicacy in Germany. He reasoned corners of their mouth. And they eat In the end, the success of the that the fish would be happily anything, living or dead. What they common carp in American waters is received in the U.S. given that it had don’t eat gets coated in mud, which a testament of what not to do. Don’t been cultivated in the Old World for makes the fish a nuisance. Fish eggs spread fish around. Arguably, though, a good long time. Baird believed that suffocate in silt and important aquatic the common carp has become an common carp could feed the people— insect habitats are ruined. Native American fish. F that the fish could be grown for much fishes that live by sight, like the top

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation By Susan Jewell Invasive Species in Our Waters The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is uniquely authorized to manage unwanted aquatic organisms “It’s a tiny little program with incredible people that is trying to stave off a colossal problem.” That’s how Dr. Stuart Leon describes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Program. Leon oversees AIS issues in the Fisheries Program as its Chief of the Division of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. With an estimated 50,000 or more non- indigenous terrestrial and aquatic species that have invaded the U.S., at a cost of more than $120 billion a year in ecological damages and control costs, it’s easy to see that the 23 full- time employees nationwide have a demanding workload.

Invasive species are a growing problem, threatening the very core of our national fisheries resources. Most of them arrive from other continents without the diseases or predators that would keep their populations in check naturally. Plants and animals have been carried across the seas to North America by people for at least five centuries, but only a few became pests early on. Not until the last century—the era of intensified globalization by machine-powered craft—did multitudes more species and pathogens land on our soils and in our waters. Because water provides such a perfect pathway for pernicious pests, our continent is both blessed and cursed. We are blessed with abundant waterways, and therefore cursed with abundant pathways and opportunities for disaster.

Even terrestrial invaders can harm aquatic resources by altering surrounding watersheds, but aquatic invaders often fester unnoticed in underwater realms until they are too Bugwood.org established to be eradicated. These Purple loosestrife goes by another name, “the purple plague.” This invasive plant turns wetlands and shallow fish-nursery waters into dense mats of plant matter.

12 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 invaders have taken a grave toll on Lakes Fishery our fisheries resources. Because Commission. the Fisheries Program restores and maintains aquatic resources, it is The zebra mussel, entwined with the problems created which hitchhiked by invasive species. to North America in ballast water The journey to quash the on ships from invaders got an early start. In Europe and was 1900, Congressman John Lacey discovered in the recognized the potential crises Great Lakes in 1988, caused by the “unwise introduction elevated the issue of of foreign birds and animals” and invasive species to spearheaded the passage of the a national level. The Goehle/USFWS Lacey Act. The Act authorizes the diminutive bivalves U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list clog water intake Mike invasive vertebrates, mollusks, and pipes and filter U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists try to thin out mats crustaceans as injurious wildlife if essential nutrients of invasive water chestnut in New York. they are deemed to be “injurious or away from native potentially injurious to the health organisms. The phenomenal damage and welfare of human beings, to the caused by the sheer numbers of zebra Rolling back the interests of forestry, agriculture, mussels led to the passage of the carpet and horticulture, and to the welfare Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Before June: six acres of open and survival of the wildlife and Prevention and Control Act of 1990 water in a New York county park. wildlife resources of the United (NANPCA). NANPCA provided After June: a carpet of water States.” Once a species is listed, its a way for government agencies chestnut that grinds all boating, importation and interstate transport to develop a national program to fishing, and recreational use to a is prohibited. The Lacey Act was reduce the risk of unintentional halt for the rest of the summer. visionary for its time by allowing introductions, ensure prompt Isolated rosettes of plants are the listing of species that had not detection and response, and control beginning to pop up several yet become established—certainly established species. NANCPA was miles outside the park, likely due to hitchhikers on boats, drift of the most effective way to fend off subsequently reauthorized and seeds in the current, and perhaps invasive catastrophes. Fruit bats, amended in 1996 by the National attachment to waterfowl. Biologists mongooses, and some birds were Invasive Species Act. Congress had are checking for stragglers outside listed as injurious in 1900. Injurious added the zebra mussel to the list of the park and getting a mechanical aquatic species today include the injurious wildlife in 1991. harvester to eradicate this year’s walking catfish, Chinese mitten crab, crop. It will be a multi-year response snakehead, and three species of Asian NANCPA established a task to eradicate this population, as carp. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife force that has grown to 13 federal well as the single rosettes we’re Service is currently ramping up its members and 12 ex-officio members finding, but our most important goal use of the Lacey Act as one tool of to coordinate governmental efforts is to prevent establishment in the an integrated plan to prevent the with those of the private sector and Niagara River, Lake Erie, and Lake establishment of invasive species. other North American interests. This Ontario. Mike Goehle, Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force Region AIS Coordinator One of the early aquatic invaders to (ANSTF) is co-chaired by the U.S. explode onto the “most unwanted” Fish and Wildlife Service and the scene was the sea lamprey, a parasitic National Oceanic and Atmospheric fish of the Atlantic Ocean that got a Administration. The ANSTF free pass through the Great Lakes established regional panels that in 1829 after the Welland Canal was include representatives from states, dug to bypass Niagara Falls. The Indian tribes, non-governmental

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cut its organizations, commercial interests, Goehle/USFWS

proverbial teeth by addressing sea and neighboring countries to address Mike lamprey impacts on lake trout in the invasive species. No boats can navigate this thick 1950s under the auspices of the Great mat of water chestnut in New York.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation Other coordination efforts exist. The they are coordinated nationally by Many parts of the Fisheries National Invasive Species Council, the Fisheries Program (see back Program play a role to directly developed under Executive Order cover). Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers! or indirectly reduce the threat 13112 in 1999, called for a national encourages people to become part of invasive species to maintain plan to coordinate federal agency of the solution by decontaminating or restore aquatic ecosystems. efforts. The Fisheries Program’s their boats, trailers, and other aquatic Some examples are: ANSTF Executive Secretary gear after leaving a waterway. • The National Fish Hatchery represents the Service on this Habitattitude educates pet owners System produces native species council. The ANSTF is the only entity and ornamental pond owners not whose populations were that has statutory standing and is to release plants, ornamental fish, threatened with extinction and operationally linked to on-the-ground snails, and other aquatic animals others depleted by invasive conservation. into natural waters by providing species. Hatchery staff research alternatives to this environmentally techniques to prevent the How aquatic invaders get a root- damaging action. Northern spread of invasive species when or shell-hold in a new land is of snakehead, nonnative catfish, water transporting and releasing paramount importance. The single hyacinth, and hydrilla are examples hatchery-reared species. most significant pathway for invasive of aquarium and ornamental pond • The National Fish Habitat species has been in ballast water of animals and plants that have Action Plan, modeled after the large ocean-going ships. However, drastically reduced the ability of North American Waterfowl since these introductions have crept freshwater bodies to sustain native Management Plan, was adopted inland from the coasts, finding ways fisheries. A dense carpet of aquatic by state and federal agencies to relate this issue nationally to invasive plants can force a motorboat in 2006 to protect, restore, and the public is critical. When zebra to a standstill. The campaigns work enhance priority habitats. Says mussels subtly spread from the Great at the community level and encourage Tom Busiahn, the Service’s Lakes by way of boating and fishing the caring public to be responsible. coordinator, “Declines of our equipment, boaters and anglers These campaigns are a springboard freshwater fishery resources became the primary focus of the for conservation at the local level that are largely due to habitat loss ANSTF’s national public awareness have the potential to create jobs and and invasive species. But many campaign. While this campaign galvanize citizen support to protect gained traction, a representative our aquatic resources. invasive species also alter of the pet and aquarium industry habitat, so the effects of these approached the U.S. Fish and The Fisheries Program supports problems are interrelated. The Wildlife Service to develop a similar one Aquatic Invasive Species Fisheries Program brings an campaign to curb the release of Coordinator in each of its eight integrated conservation ‘toolbox’ unwanted aquarium pets and plants administrative regions across the to meet the challenges they pose into the wild. country. That title might conjure up to our aquatic ecosystems.” an image of someone trying to train • The Fish Technology Centers, Today, both of these campaigns serve a team of quagga mussels, but these Fish Health Centers, and Aquatic as the public face of the ANSTF. coordinators play a critical role in Animal Drug Approval Partnership Known respectively as Stop Aquatic connecting information and resources provide national scientific and Hitchhikers!®™ and Habitattitude™, technical leadership to solve with management needs. They both fishery and hatchery management problems, including how to deal Exercising those mussels with invasive species. Fire drills, earthquake drills . . . mussel drills? The Pacific Northwest, home of • The Injurious Wildlife Program iconic salmon and steelhead runs, is one of the few remaining places in the endeavors to prevent the spread U.S. not yet invaded by the insidious zebra and quagga mussels. The U.S. Fish of extremely damaging invasive and Wildlife Service and its partners work hard to keep it that way. Though wildlife species by listing them as prevention is the priority, they coordinate drills via the Columbia River Basin injurious under the Lacey Act. rapid response plan as a second line of defense. To test and improve the plan, • The National Fish Passage regular response drills work through “what if” scenarios. This translates to a Program provides grants and more effective response if a real introduction occurs. A recent exercise in Idaho’s technical assistance to agencies, Lucky Peak Reservoir trained local law enforcement dive teams in underwater tribes, and communities to mussel surveys. A drill planned for the fall of 2010 will focus on coordinating remove barriers to fish passage. a Canada-U.S. response within boundary waters. Paul Heimowitz, Pacific Region AIS Coordinator

14 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 support and receive support from field biologists and spend much of their time collaborating with private and public partners. On any given day, they may develop budget proposals and review grant project reports, lead a training course, meet with state agencies to develop a monitoring plan, or give a presentation to a youth group. Engaged in prevention, early detection, rapid response, and long- term control projects at local and national scales, the aquatic invasive species biologists wear nearly as many hats as the plethora of invasive species they target.

Much of the invasive species field work is accomplished through coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 67 Fish and

Wildlife Conservation Offices around credit the country that work with the states agencies and other partners. Their efforts include implementing an integrated pest management approach for sea lamprey control in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, tracking snakehead movements in the Potomac River, eradicating water chestnut from the New York State Canal System, managing Chinese mitten crab along the California coast, and serving on the frontline of our fight against many of the highest profile invasive species.

Certainly, invasive species are not the only threat to aquatic ecosystems. But if we could magically end all other threats except for invasive species, we would still ultimately lose the race to save our corner of the planet. The “tiny little program” is swimming against the tide, but it is pooling its talents in a big way. F

Susan Jewell is an Injurious Wildlife Listing Bugwood.org Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Thick mats of hydrilla cover shallow waters, choking fish habitat. Service, stationed in Arlington, Virginia.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation By Bob Pitman

Giant Salvinia Invasive plant creates giant headache in the South

It is not a field. This east-Texas bayou is covered with the invasive giant salvinia. Its scientific name couldn’t be more it rages out of control spreading over appropriate: Salvinia molesta. This water surfaces, doubling the area it floating plant has a predilection for can cover in as little as five days. It is being a problem. It’s often called “the an invasive floating fern native only to world’s worst aquatic weed” for good Brazil. It has become a giant problem reasons. In common terms, it’s known in Texas and Louisiana where it was as giant salvinia. unintentionally introduced. The plant threatens all southern-tier states Giant salvinia isn’t a towering plant, where warmer conditions suit the but it grows voluminous. Unchecked, plant. In the last 70 years it has been

16 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 the plant made its way into the open waters of Texas in 1998.

Once established in open water, boat movement most likely spread plant fragments to several east-Texas lakes including Toledo Bend, Caddo, Conroe, and Sam Rayburn, as well as to several Louisiana lakes. Anglers and boaters lost open water and fishing opportunities, and related Unchecked, businesses lost some livelihood. Ducks lost habitat, and lake-front it rages out property dropped in value. of control Here is something else to consider. Giant salvinia is a big financial burden spreading over for state fish and game agencies, as they are forced to deal with yet water surfaces, another stressor on natural resources management. Recently, Louisiana doubling the managers began partially draining popular Lake Bistineau to improve area it can cover giant salvinia control. The drawdown may last throughout 2011. in as little as

A single plant of giant salvinia five days. consists of a horizontal stem floating just below the surface with two thumb-sized emergent green leaves …A single plant covered with short hairs that are joined at the tips, resembling an has been known eggbeater. A modified third leaf is brown, highly divided and dangles to cover forty below the water surface resembling roots. Leaf pairs are produced at square miles of Department each node growing ropes of giant salvinia. The prolific plant reproduces water in three Wildlife by fragmenting. Pieces grow into

Giant Salvinia and entirely new plants. Individual plants months. or floating fragments are readily Invasive plant creates giant headache in the South Parks dispersed by wind, water currents,

Texas or people. The plant easily invades It is not a field. This east-Texas bayou is covered with the invasive giant salvinia. new locations. Giant salvinia is native to Brazil’s temperate waters and can spread by people to Australia, New survive some winter freezing but Zealand, Africa, India, and Papua will not persist where surface ice New Guinea. forms. With optimum conditions of temperature, sunlight and nutrients, You may have seen it by its market the plant grows at an astonishing name, “koi kandy,” where it has been rate. A single plant has been known popularly sold to aquarium owners to cover forty square miles of water in for several decades. The aquarium or three months. aqua-garden trade is probably how

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation Aquarium owners and aqua- purposeful importation. However, naturally co-exist in nature in Brazil, gardeners desire giant salvinia the loose net of federal and state the weevil so named since it eats the because it is persistent, hard to kill, regulations and authorities used to plant. The weevil has successfully easily shipped with minimal expense block invasive species distributions controlled giant salvinia around the and guaranteed to arrive alive to and movements were not sufficient world. customers. Unfortunately, these to prevent the inevitable release of are also classic qualities inherent giant salvinia. It is now, and probably Scientists have researched, reared, to invasive species. Giant salvinia forever, a permanent challenge to and released the control weevil in is a notorious hitchhiker. Suppliers conservation in the southern U.S. Texas and Louisiana for a decade, often unintentionally send it, if only but with limited success so far. fragments, in shipments of other Giant salvinia is a serious invasive Giant salvinia spreads quicker than requested aquatic plants. species, but it does have some the weevil can eat, or the bug can weakness. reproduce. Winter weather sets the Australian researcher Dr. David weevil back, more than it does giant Mitchell scientifically described Present controls involve spray crews salvinia. A control strategy it seems, Salvinia molesta in the early 1970s. regularly treating giant salvinia mats will include weevils, herbicides and He appropriately named the species with herbicides to temporarily reduce mechanical removal. “molesta” to emphasize what he coverage. Only in rare circumstances had seen this plant do to waters in do herbicides provide long-term Giant salvinia is only one among a Australia, Africa and Papua New relief. Mechanical controls are also list of other aquatic invasive plants. Guinea. The U.S. Department very costly and temporary. Giant One thing they almost all have in of Agriculture responded to his salvinia control may ultimately be common is that invasions of these warning and listed Salvinia molesta achieved by the herbivorous salvinia plants cost much money to control— as a Noxious Weed to prevent its weevil. The weevil and the plant not eradicate, but control. Federal Department Wildlife and Parks Texas The salvinia weevil shows promise in controlling giant salvinia, especially when combined with mechanical and chemical controls.

18 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Department Wildlife and Parks Texas Cypress trees, up to their knees in giant salvinia, is a sign that fish and waterfowl habitats are compromised. Restoring habitat will be no easy or inexpensive task. and state agencies, universities and Caddo, or Conroe, who deal with stakeholder groups are increasingly giant salvinia year after year. Anyone working together to control the plant. who uses water for work or play should understand the consequences Hydrilla and Eurasian water milfoil of their actions. Responsible users are two such examples. Both are help protect our water and that which native to Asia and Europe. Hydrilla lives in it, on it, or near it. F forms extremely dense colonies growing from bottom to surface in water up to 20 feet deep. Water Bob Pitman retired as a fishery biologist milfoil forms dense colonies from from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the bottom to the surface, the 2010. Pitman exemplified a commitment to colonies making boating and angling conservation, working on invasive species impossible. Hydrilla has its “Typhoid issues for over a decade. He’s headed to Mary,” tracing its origin in the Montana, where he went to college years ago U.S. to one aquarium dumped in a and minored in fisheries science and majored Florida canal by one person. This in flyfishing. irreversible action will have ecological and economic costs that will never go away.

Prevention is cheaper than the cure, to paraphrase the old adage. Just ask home owners near Lakes Bistineau,

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation By Jeffry Anderson Kenai’s Most Unwanted Baer/ADFG Adrian Samantha Oslund, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, caught this northern pike in Alexander Lake, near Anchorage, where the species was introduced in the 1950s. Northern pike are revered as the The Kenai River is a world-class swift-flowing Kenai River provides ultimate trophy fish. But where fishery. It’s the primary destination little northern pike habitat, several they have been illegally introduced for many visitors to Alaska who hope tributary streams do. These tributary in parts of Alaska, they are reviled to catch record-sized Chinook salmon streams and their associated lake for the serious problems they cause and trout. Illegal northern pike systems also hold important habitat for native fishes. Northern pike are introductions on the Kenai Peninsula for juvenile salmon and trout, and native to Alaska, north and west of threaten multi-million dollar sport northern pike threaten those native the Alaska Range where they are an and commercial fisheries, as well fisheries. important sport and subsistence fish. as important subsistence fisheries. They are not native to southcentral These invasive northern pike were As is the case with virtually all Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula—and are illegally introduced into a lake on the aquatic invasive species, no easy fix very much unwanted. Kenai Peninsula in the 1970s, and exists once a northern pike population have since spread to 16 more lakes becomes established. However, the This toothy predator co-evolved with and two tributaries of the Kenai ADFG management plan for invasive salmon and trout in much of its native River. northern pike outlines ways to control range. But several lakes on the Kenai their spread on the Kenai Peninsula. that supported rainbow trout, Dolly Northern pike catches on the Kenai Varden, and migratory Pacific salmon, Peninsula have increased dramatically Rotenone, a natural plant substance are now dominated by northern in recent years, from only 36 in 1994 that is short-lived in the environment, pike—the unintended consequence of to over 2,000 in 2004, according to kills fish by clogging their gills and illegal stocking. It’s particularly bad the Alaska Department of Fish and is one tool used to control northern in habitats needed by juvenile trout Game (ADFG) harvest surveys. The pike in lakes. But rotenone is and salmon—shallow, weedy, slow- ADFG continues to receive reports controversial, and is used only in moving waters—which happen to be of sport-caught northern pike, even landlocked lakes that have been prime northern pike habitat, too. from the Kenai River. Although the entirely taken over by northern pike.

20 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 ADFG biologists use netting and control barriers on several lakes. Intensive netting reduces pike numbers over the short term, but catching all of the pike in a water body is nearly impossible.

Water control structures on lake outlets can prohibit pike movements from lakes into connecting streams, but the structures can also inhibit migrations of native fishes. Control barriers are also expensive and can fail during high water flows, not to mention become impractical when lakes are covered with ice.

Controlling pike populations or movements in rivers and streams is an even more daunting challenge. So far, research has not found a single management tool that can rid streams of northern pike.

However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Kenai Fish and Wildlife Field Office operates an underwater video system at a weir in the Soldotna Creek watershed, where northern pike were first introduced on the Kenai Peninsula. Underwater video captured two northern pike swimming through the weir since April 2009, about 50 yards upstream from Soldotna Creek’s juncture with the Kenai River. Underwater video has become a valuable outreach platform. It’s used to help spread the word in the community and with visiting anglers about the dangers of invasive pike on the peninsula, and the threat that they pose to popular Kenai River sport fisheries. USFWS Unwanted: Northern pike on the Kenai Peninsula. Northern pike eat fish, Since controlling invasive northern and readily ingest young trout and salmon. pike is both difficult and expensive, the ADFG and the Kenai Fish and Wildlife Field Office use public Illegal pike introductions on the elsewhere is reviled on the Kenai for education through newspaper Kenai were probably done by people good reasons. F articles, posters, brochures, and who wanted to fish for pike but were public meetings. The ADFG website ignorant of the consequences of features a wealth of information, their actions. Biologists hope that Jeffry Anderson is a fishery biologist at including an informative video an educated public—one that knows the Kenai Fish and Wildlife Field Office in clip that shows pike preying upon that introducing pike is both illegal Soldotna, Alaska. rainbow trout. and detrimental to native fishes—will stave the spread of northern pike on the Kenai Peninsula. What’s revered

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation By John Bryan “Rock Snot” Poses Problems for Fisheries Conservation UCR Research Species Invasive of Hoddle/Center S. Mark This wet wooly mass is a mat of single-celled diatomaceous algae, called didymo. It fouls fishing, and may create problems for fish habitat. It’s spring 2006 as Dan Genest wades In the fall of 2007, Bill Fletcher of knee-deep into Virginia’s Smith the Lamar Fish Technology Center, River clarity. His 5-weight rod received word that didymo was in throws a blue-winged olive with a Vermont’s White River—next to the pheasant tail dropper. White River National Fish Hatchery. This was its first appearance in the “Dirty, wet toilet paper,” is how Northeast, recalls Fletcher. Genest, former president of Fly Fishers of Virginia, now describes Historically uncommon, the single- what he saw. “It was carpeting the cell alga now known as didymo river.” recently began blossoming as an apparent invasive species. Its 2004 It was Didymospenia geminate, aka appearance in New Zealand spawned didymo, aka rock snot—a freshwater global attention and communication. diatom, an algae—that can thrive There are currently no methods for in coldwater shallows. It suddenly eradication. began to appear in the middle of the last decade.

22 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Genest sees trout rising, but his dry fly stops its drift as the dropper snags on the carpet of toilet paper. It easily pulls loose, but Genest has to clean it. After a dozen cast-and-cleans he removes the dropper, and then quickly catches a wild brown on the dry fly.

A one-cell organism, didymo can be UCR present even if it can’t be seen— and thus it’s currently impossible Research to know whether new blooms are

the result of transferral or of newly Species ripe conditions. “There’s a bit of a smoking gun in that it’s showing Invasive up at popular international fishing of locations,” says Dr. Leslie Matthews of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. Hoddle/Center An angler can wade in a U.S. stream S.

and 17 hours later be wading in one Mark in New Zealand. Didymo can survive Called “rock snot” in the vernacular, didymo has the appearance of wet toilet tissue. two days when dry, and a month when damp. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Zealand’s communications team began identifying probable vectors produced the term “rock snot.” The The carpeting blocks Genest’s view for spread, determining methods term made its first public appearance of the river bottom as his feet search for stopping those pathways, and in a quotation that the team attributed for rocks and holes. “It would wrap initiating education efforts. “By the to Dr. Christina Vieglais, a frontline around my feet and I couldn’t see time I showed up on the White River leader in New Zealand’s scientific rocks,” he remembers. “You could hit there were little yellow warning response to didymo. “I don’t like a big rock and lose your balance.” But signs everywhere,” says Fletcher. A the word and didn’t want to use it,” the wild browns keep hitting on top. brainstorming session among New recalls Vieglais, now a biotechnologist UCR Research Species Invasive of Hoddle/Center S. Mark The icky algae, didymo, can cover a stream bottom in light layers or in thick masses.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials identified anglers and boaters as probable transfer agents for the spread of didymo. And they learned that didymo needs moisture to survive. “The general message is CHECK, CLEAN, AND DRY,” says Michael Goehle, an Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in New York. “Remove foreign material from boats, trailers, and equipment.” Additional guidance includes washing all equipment—especially felt-soled waders—in a cleaning solution such as two-percent bleach.

Genest’s day job is spokesperson for Dominion—a large energy company that puts a priority focus on the environment. “Dominion has looked at its hydropower waterways and has not found didymo,” Genest reports. This includes Black Creek—a catch- and-release delayed-harvest stream that runs through Dominion property

UCR associated with the Bath County Pump Storage Facility in Virginia.

Research Didymo could potentially interfere with the water intake systems of Species Dominion and other organizations, resulting in costly repairs and

Invasive redesign. Intake problems can also be of fatal—such as fouling a jet boat while negotiating hazardous rapids.

Didymo near the White River Hoddle/Center

S. National Fish Hatchery that raises Atlantic salmon caused the hatchery Mark to have to spend the money to switch Not particularly pleasing to look at, what the full impact the invasive algae may from river water to well water. “We have on fisheries remains to be seen. distribute salmon fry throughout with the USDA’s Environmental the Connecticut River basin,” says Risk Analysis Programs. “It was hatchery manager Ken Gillette, misleading.” But the term grabbed “and we don’t want to risk seeding attention and informed New didymo.” Zealanders. Genest catches his seventh wild Genest pulls a clump of didymo brown—all of them healthy with from his boots. It looks slimy but it no signs of ill effects from didymo. feels like wet wool. His apprehension Later he will encounter didymo in about touching it vanishes when it Tennessee’s South Holston River doesn’t sting or abrade or prick. and in Virginia’s Jackson River— both with seemingly healthy fish populations.

24 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 CHECK, CLEAN, AND DRY,” … “Remove foreign material from boats, trailers, and equipment.”

In spite of widely held presumptions but promote spread-prevention, to politicians and those who make that didymo “smothers” invertebrate period,” says Matthews. decisions,” says Goehle. populations and therefore harms fisheries, research has proven the Didymo’s primary detrimental “Let’s minimize potential spread until opposite. “That’s what the prediction impacts are focused on two areas: we know more,” says Matthews. “It was,” says Vieglais, “but our results recreation and water intake. Both may turn out not to be as much of an proved otherwise and the fact that mean money. New Zealand estimated ecological problem as we fear—or there has been no collapse of the New a potential impact of $57 to $285 maybe it will become a huge problem Zealand trout fishery since didymo million over 8 years. When there is a that one day we’ll be able to address.” arrived bears that out.” flushing flow, didymo dislodges and can create a waterway that appears “Easily 100 different trout waters An active angler, writer, and to be full of sewage, uninviting to in 10 states,” is Genest’s angling environmental volunteer, Genest recreational users, and quite difficult experience. Education surrounding admits, “It’s hard for most anglers to for anglers. didymo is convincing him and other remember to clean their boots , and recreational users that CHECK, I’ve been guilty. It’s human nature The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s CLEAN, and DRY is—no matter not to want to spread didymo, but it focus on education is working, and how inconvenient—“just something takes a real conscientious effort.” one evidence is the widespread we do.” F support for procedures to ban felt- “I try to deemphasize the idea of soled waders. “It shows that we’ve John Bryan wrote “Cruising for Atlantic knowing whether didymo is present, come a long way with our messages Sturgeon” in Eddies, Spring 2010. He lives in Richmond, Virginia. UCR Research Species Invasive of Hoddle/Center S. Mark A didymo-covered cobble is also habitat for aquatic insects. Insects are essential food for fishes.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation By David Britton, Ph.D. Conservation in a Quagga-mire Dealing with zebra and quagga mussel invasions Britton/USFWS David This zebra mussel cluster was pulled from Lake Oologah, Oklahoma. The tiny but invasive mussel has steadily spread from the Great Lakes. An Ecological Cancer alternating dark and light stripes. Zebra and quagga mussels are In large numbers, however, they are notorious. They invade our waters unstoppable. When healthy, they like an ecological cancer. Incipient attach to hard surfaces and live populations of zebra and quagga in dense clusters where they glue mussels exhibit rapid, uncontrolled themselves to each other and other growth and tend to invade new, hard surfaces using sticky threads. otherwise healthy areas. They In this way they form enormous permanently damage or destroy populations that can cover all hard these systems. What’s worse, zebra surfaces. Densities exceed 100,000 and quagga mussels are spread mussels per square meter. They by contact. They are chronically attach to rocks, dock pilings, beer debilitating, with the power to cause cans, bottles, logs, boat hulls and permanent, irreparable damage. outboards, ropes, anchors, turtles, crustaceans, clams, insects, shopping Individual zebra and quagga mussels carts­—any hard surface submerged do not appear formidable. They are in water. only about an inch or less long, with

26 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 The History of the Problem invaded much of the eastern United anything else submerged in water. In the 1980s, transatlantic ships States, including the Mississippi, They are known to clog cooling water supplied goods and grains to Eastern Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio, and intakes in outboards and lower units, Europe. These ships returned to Arkansas rivers as well as the Great which can lead to permanent damage North America carrying ballast water Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. and costly repairs. Crappie and contaminated with aquatic invaders. bass anglers in Oklahoma have their Some have argued that zebra and Quagga mussels initially invaded monofilament lines regularly cut by quagga mussels came attached to North America at a slower pace sharp mussels. Bait buckets become anchors and chains as well. Zebra and than zebra mussels. They remained unrecognizable as such because of quagga mussels were unintentionally restricted mostly within the Great a dense mussels encrustation. A released into the Great Lakes Lakes until 2007, when quagga floating dock submerged in winter system and discovered in 1988 and mussels were discovered in the lower became unable to support the weight 1989 respectively; although no one Colorado River at Lake Mead. It of snow on the roof combined with recognized that these were actually is likely that quagga mussels came dense zebra mussel encrustation two different species until a year or attached to a houseboat brought below. two later. Zebra mussel populations from the Great Lakes. From there, exploded, reaching a vast distribution they immediately spread following Zebra and quagga mussels are not in the Great Lakes by 1990. They the flow of water. Just as a medical just a nuisance to those who use spread through connected waterways transfusion can spread disease- our waters for recreation. They like metastatic cancer, into the laden blood from one human body to are also problematic for industrial Mississippi drainage, reaching St. another, artificial diversions of water facility operations that use raw Louis, Missouri by 1991 and New from the Colorado River swiftly water to supply utilities for our Orleans, Louisiana by 1993. transferred these virulent invaders to communities. Zebra and quagga otherwise unreachable water bodies mussels substantially reduce flow in How they Spread and associated drainages in southern large pipes and clog smaller diameter Zebra mussels from the Great Lakes California and Arizona. Meanwhile, pipes in cooling and fire suppression spread rapidly downstream. An trailered boats have spread them, systems in power plants. They clog artificial connection between the albeit more slowly, into more isolated screens and pipes in water treatment Great Lakes and the Mississippi systems. Quagga mussels have also facilities. Expensive routine River drainages allowed for rapid been detected in unconnected waters maintenance is needed to keep water range expansion of these insidious in Colorado and Utah. flowing. Authorities in the Columbia invaders without delay after their River basin have estimated that original introduction. The Chicago Impacts Sanitary and Ship Canal, originally There are designed to move Chicago’s sewage economic and waste away from Lake Michigan, ecologic effects provided the same gateway for the from mussel Great Lakes’ aquatic invaders into invasions—and the Mississippi system. Downstream both are negative. spread was inevitable. Mussel larvae Anglers and are suspended in the water, and others who travel wherever the flow takes them. use water for The infested Mississippi River then recreation can tell served as a conduit for zebra mussels you that zebra and to reach all areas connected via quagga mussels navigable waterways. Adult zebra are a nuisance. Britton/USFWS mussels spread upstream to other They foul hulls, intakes, props, David rivers attached to boats and barges. Quagga mussels infest this piece of marine equipment, pulled Since the 1980s, zebra mussels have dock lines, and from Lake Mead, Nevada.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation costs to install chlorination systems Zebra and quagga mussels filter recreational fishing in Lake Michigan to keep mussels out of pipes could water for plankton to eat, and they in recent years. In the West, this be as high as $2 million for some are especially good at it. Clear water is alarming because western water raw water sources. They estimate doesn’t necessarily mean healthy supports many threatened and that recurring operational costs water. Plankton is the base of the endangered fish species like the could equal or exceed $100,000 per aquatic food web and nutrient-rich humpback chub (see Eddies Summer year for a single facility. MSNBC waters are naturally murky. Water 2008) and razorback sucker that reported that the Metropolitan clarity increases dramatically might not be able to withstand a Water District of Southern California following a mussel invasion. zebra or quagga mussel invasion. expects to spend between $10-$15 Removing algae can have a cascading Following the introduction of zebra million in a single year to control effect that impacts the entire food and quagga mussels, populations of quagga mussels in their systems. In web from zooplankton to large native freshwater mussels in Lake St. the Great Lakes area, congressional top-predator fishes. Over the last Clair and the western basin of Lake researchers have estimated that the decade, water clarity has increased Erie have plummeted. It seems that power industry spent over $3 billion prominently in Lake Michigan our native fauna may be unable to to control zebra and quagga mussels while populations of crustacean compete. It’s a simple fact that once between 1993-1999. Of course, such species of the genus Diporeia have zebra or quagga mussels invade a costs are passed on to you in your decreased by over 95 percent. system it will never be the same. utility bills. The combined economic These crustaceans are part of the impact to industries, businesses, and zooplankton that feed on algae. They QZAP communities may have exceeded $5 are, in turn, fed upon by smaller fish, The Western Regional Panel on billion during that six-year span. which are fed upon by larger fish. Aquatic Nuisance Species created A dramatic reduction in algae has a Quagga-Zebra Mussel Action The economic costs are terrible, but likely driven a cascade leading to the Plan for Western U.S. Waters, the ecologic costs may be worse. reduced catch seen in commercial and recently approved by the federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force. This plan, affectionately called QZAP, identifies priority actions to thwart the mussels’ spread and control existing populations. Specific prevention strategies include mandatory inspection and decontamination at infested waters; continued development of effective watercraft and equipment inspection and decontamination protocols and standards; adoption of protocols and standards in the western states; establishment and implementation of strong, consistent law enforcement programs; and development of a risk- assessment model for water bodies. QZAP also provides strategies for early detection and monitoring, rapid response, containment, and control of existing populations, as well as outreach and education. Many state and federal agencies have already Britton/USFWS begun implementing QZAP at all

David jurisdictional levels. The public can Any hard surface, including marine equpiment, is potential habitat for invasive help by learning about zebra and mussels. This piece of encrusted gear was pulled from Lake Oolagah, Oklahoma. quagga mussels (and other aquatic

28 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 invaders) and take the simple steps necessary to prevent unintentional spread.

Stopping the Spread No cure exists for zebra or quagga mussels. Only two eradication attempts have been successful, one in Virginia and one in Nebraska, both in isolated small ponds where mussels were poisoned. This method is not feasible in larger systems, flowing systems, or in systems

used for drinking Reclamation water. Those of us of who use waters that currently have zebra Bureau or quagga mussels Quagga mussels encrust a penstock gate at Davis Dam on Lake Mohave, Arizona. will have to get used to them. Research has professionally cleaned with 140°F, focused on controlling these mussels, high-pressure water before transport. to keep water flowing, rather than eradicating them in open waters, Remember, zebra and quagga which is a more daunting task. mussels are an ecological disease. Preventing further spread is our best Most of us understand the hope at the moment. importance of personal health and hygiene. We accept the necessity to Although we are essentially bathe. We wash our hands, brush powerless to stop downstream our teeth, and maybe even floss spread, we can prevent overland on occasion. When it comes to our spread on trailered boats. This mode own bodies we are careful not to let is much slower and quite preventable. disease find an easy way in. This is Boaters should know that zebra and common sense. As you go about your quagga mussels could survive several business, keep in mind that water days out of water if conditions are bodies, like human bodies, are also humid and cool. As predicted by vulnerable to invasion. They can be laboratory studies, we now know healthy or diseased. And like many that they can survive long enough nasty human diseases, currently we in air to travel from one of the Great have no cure for zebra and quagga Lakes to Lake Mead, a distance of mussels. F approximately 1,800 miles. Boaters should always clean their equipment thoroughly, drain all standing water, and dry everything before moving David Britton, Ph.D., an Aquatic Invasive to other waters. If boats are kept Species Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and in infested waters, they should be Wildlife Service, works in Arlington, Texas.

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation Meanders By Jason Goldberg The River of Life Courses in Unusual Ways I’m home again in Florida, no summer camp for such a thing in of Aquatic Invasive Species. The visiting from my Washington DC those days. Department of the Interior recently office. It’s a surprisingly cold proposed to list large constrictor January day in the Everglades. But there was Big Pine Key’s snakes as “injurious.” Constrictors Larry Perez, a biologist with SeaCamp. I was interested in science threaten the native species in Everglades National Park, leads from an early age, but it was while the Everglades. The importation us into the woods to search for snorkeling in Looe Key when I was and interstate transport of these African pythons. The terrain is just 11 or 12 that I saw living coral animals are significant, and highly very dense woodland, not really reefs as big as a house and thousands controversial given the way these meant for navigation by Homo of years old. A seven-foot-long tarpon snakes have made their way into the sapiens. As a wetlands ecologist, hovered near me before vanishing in wild. The Florida Fish and Wildlife the thick foliage confounds my a brilliant silver flash. I skimmed the Conservation Commission organizes attempts to move through it. I surface of the shallow Everglades periodic search parties like the one wonder, “Where’s a good muddy on an airboat, and marveled that I am on to follow the spread of the marsh when you need one?” there were thousands of tiny animals snakes. But doing so is not easy. Still, Perez skillfully finds even beneath my bare feet as I walked the Burmese pythons have existed in the narrowest of paths. I crawl beach. I was hooked. From then on, it the Everglades for some time, but it on my belly under a fallen tree, was always aquatic science for me. was unclear whether African pythons wallowing in cold mud and leaves, also live here. Large constrictors are and fervently hope that I don’t Then, there was a birthday gift. My masters of camouflage; it’s possible to encounter a constrictor snake in mother wrote to Marjory Stoneman be within four feet of one and still not this precarious position. When Douglas about her budding biologist see it. I leapt at the chance to search my head hits a tree branch for son. Soon after, I received an for them. the fourth time, I wonder how I autographed first edition of her came to be here. River of Grass, the lightning rod The cold January weather works in for south Florida conservation. our favor, as the snakes are more Oh yes, I remember. It’s all my Then, in high school, a bus tour of sluggish. The area we search isn’t parents’ fault. the Everglades and a conversation the typical Everglades, with its deep about environmental outreach with mud and airboats. Instead, we search Like most residents, I’m not the nice person next to me proved a site adjacent to development, a native Floridian. We moved serendipitous. Two years later, she much of which has been drained from New York when I was six, turned out to be on the acceptance and is now drier terrain. As part but with all of its eccentricities, committee for the University of of the Everglades Cooperative Florida is home. The heat Miami, where I studied marine Invasive Species Management and humidity melded into my biology. Area collaboration, we work with blood. My parents supported the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of me and my siblings in whatever The river of life courses in unusual Florida. They allow the surveys on endeavors we pursued as we ways. their land, and they also participate. grew up: horseback riding, piano. My girlfriend wishes I’d taken So it was that I found myself, years We organize into several teams. My dancing lessons. I suspect my later, back in Florida with the U.S. first shift was driving a labyrinthine parents secretly wanted me to go Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fisheries route very slowly to search for snakes into the tech world, but there was Program, a biologist in the Branch along the roads and houses. South

30 Eddies Summer/Fall 2010 Florida’s quirks quickly emerge. revolutionaries used to plot here, the Everglades. It’s just one Coming so soon after the holidays, rumors say. One of my teammates, more problem we must address to we look for snakes wrapped around who already reminded me of Indiana conserve the “river of grass.” weary Santa Claus lawn ornaments Jones (sans bullwhip), proves his or hiding under old Christmas trees spirit when he tangles with two With my teammates, I discover waiting to be mulched. Ironically, constrictors. Each is at least ten feet that we had a mutual and ironic we motor down Marjory Stoneman long and escapes into the ground admiration for these snakes Douglas Drive. We annoy drivers despite the firm grip he had on we were tracking down. You who don’t care much for our 10-mph their tails. He leaves the encounter can’t help but admire and speed. We also annoy a goose unsuccessful, but unharmed. respect pythons. Aside from anxiously guarding a flock of Muscovy the natural beauty and jeweled ducks (yet another invasive) in the I can identify and survey with quality of their bodies, they are middle of the road. We stop to talk pixel-point accuracy a point in a marvelously efficient survivalists, with landscapers and post office wetland that corresponds precisely singular in mind and purpose. workers, people who work outside with remotely sensed data. So, I’m and might spot snakes. Our search concerned about my reputation when And this is really ironic: many yields nothing, but the other teams I lose my group barely twenty yards of the people on the survey have recovered a few snakes. Even from the road. Breaking through owned constrictors, but they finding four, given their fantastic a bad patch of thorns and only recognized that the big snakes ability to camouflage, is cause for slightly scarred for the experience, don’t belong in Florida’s wild concern—they have been spreading. I rejoin my team. One of them, a habitats. The trackers came law enforcement officer, beckons from different backgrounds, South Florida is a land of nonnative me. A short distance from the road, but all shared a commitment to species, and the signs are everywhere just inside the stand of trees, is a conservation. Invasive species that snakes and Muscovy aren’t glass chicken, a totem of a human are one of the top threats the only problem threatening the face composed of seashells, incense, facing ecosystems, costing this landscape. Acres and acres of dead and other objects I can’t quite country an estimated $120 billion melaleuca (an invasive tree) line the identify. These remains of a religious annually in environmental and roads, their papery bark still flaking ceremony were intended to discard economic harm. It’s difficult and in sheets. It looks like a fire exploded bad luck. If only it were as easy to controversial, but I’m confident in the area, the result of herbicide find and eradicate invasive organisms. we can solve problems with spraying to control the melaleuca. invasive species, and restore Though they look less threatening, We’re back in the forest, near a stand habitats. invasive plants pose an even bigger of Brazilian pepper (yet another problem for the Everglades by invasive tree), when I finally twist It’s in that effort where I take changing habitats native species my way free from under the tree. real pride and meaning in my need. Another of my teammates has made work. Someday, maybe even a new discovery. The cold weather yesterday, someone just saw a My next tour is with the field affects all reptiles in the area, and she big fish for the first time, or some crews. Given the small area of our has found a near-comatose nonnative other spectacle of nature, and search, it’s surprisingly diverse: brown basilisk lizard. It hangs upside decided that they also will make a farmland, forests, streams, old down in a tree by just one claw, its difference. F roads, and drainages. Here too, ginger belly visible. She collects it Florida’s eccentricities appear. easily. We explore a decayed shack, now home to a massive wasp nest. Half I didn’t find any snakes during my Jason Goldberg is a Fish and Wildlife of a truck still hitched to a broken part of the survey but the team Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife found enough to confirm that Service at its headquarters in boat sits nearby, and countless beer Arlington, Virginia. bottles litter the ground. Cuban constrictors are spreading through

Vol. 3, No. 2 Reflections on Fisheries Conservation

STANDARD PRESORT Eddies POSTAGE AND FEES Reflections on Fisheries Conservation PAID U.S. DEPARTMENT U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service– Fisheries OF THE INTERIOR MS ARLSQ 720 PERMIT G-77 4401 North Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22203

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/eddies CONSER VING

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Summer/Fall 2010 Marketing Social Change Globalization over the past forty years has changed the Habitattitude targets pet owners and water gardeners, world. It has manifested in the invasive species that confound encouraging consumers to prevent the spread of invasive species. conservation. Moving people and goods around the world It established a cooperative relationship with the pet industry, has moved unwanted organisms to where they don’t belong. and substantial financial support from the industry helps to Regulations to prevent such spread don’t always work. The communicate the conservation message. F U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks to encourage voluntary Joe Starinchak citizen-conservation through social marketing, partnering with business, industry, and conservation groups to empower targeted citizens to adopt conservation-friendly behaviors.

The public faces of these partnerships are the national Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers!® and Habitattitude™ campaigns.

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