Gobies Invade Inland US Waters

[singerjr]

This little fish has already infected ALL of the Great Lakes including the St. Lawrance Seaway. It attackes some of our most favorite game and table fish. It is now on it's way down the Mississippi.<br /><br />I had read bits and pieces about the Goby but never paid much attention to it. I got interested in this topic from another post here. I started to look for more information and what I found was disturbing. Not only could it affect the quantity of fish available it will also affect the quality of the fish from tast to possibly making you sick.<br /><br />I had posted some information on that other thread but rather than taking over that topic I thought it better to start a new topic.<br /><br />It is a very important issue that all of us should at least know something about because we can all help in some way. The ways we can help are easy and don't take a lot of effort on our part.<br /><br />I am posting information I found on the web, there is a lot of information and my intention ie to inform. It's a lot to read and not really fun. <br /><br />Please add your comments or information. One site you can go and get direct up to date information is: http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/7_31_99/fob1.htm <br /><br />I will post excerpts from sites that contain solid factual information that has been proved to be true.<br /><br />In April 1990, David J. Jude found a round goby in the St. Clair River outside Detroit. A biologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he immediately recognized the threat of invasion signaled by the North American debut of this European fish. Almost immediately, as he had feared, the goby began nesting in the adjoining Lakes Huron and Erie. Last week, Canadian officials announced that the fish has reached Lake Ontario. <br /><br />This latest sighting, in Canadian waters near the base of the St. Lawrence Seaway, confirms that the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) now populates all five Great Lakes, marking a remarkable rate of dispersal. In many shore areas, it has become the dominant fish.<br /><br />Certainly, notes Ron Dermott of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Burlington, Ontario, it "should be considered a permanent resident of the Great Lakes."

 

[singerjr]

Re: Gobies Invade Inland US Waters

The good news is that these tiny predators have a voracious appetite for zebra mussels, earlier invaders from the fish's home waters in and around the Black Sea. Like the mussels, this goby probably hitched across the Atlantic in the ballast water of some freighter. Unfortunately, gobies don't eat just zebra mussels. These bottom-dwelling fish will also devour eggs and fry of any fish sharing their habitat, which include smallmouth bass, walleye, and perch.<br /><br />Usually much smaller than a smelt, gobies aggressively defend their turf—generally rocky shoals or gravel. Males, which build and guard their nests, appear to fear little, Dermott says, and they will tenaciously "drive off fish twice their size."<br /><br />In several areas, this goby has already extirpated the mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdi), a Great Lakes native that it resembles in size, shape, and habitat, Jude notes. The aggressive goby simply claimed the sculpin's food, took over its nesting areas, and ate sculpin young.

 

[DaleT]

Re: Gobies Invade Inland US Waters

Great post, I fish Lk. St. Clair regularly and these fish are certainly a menace. One of the spots I go for shore fishing is virtually devoid of anything but gobies. About the only thing they're good for is fertilizer. I don't know about any other regions bordering the Great Lakes, but in Mich. if you catch one you are not supposed to release it into the water.