Everything Science Forum

Didymosphenia geminata

Any thoughts on the long term consequences of this invasive species?

What started out in Vancouver Island in British Columbia "has suddenly just skyrocketed," he said.

The algae has the potential to bloom into thick masses with long stalks, blanketing the bottoms of some streams, threatening aquatic insect and fish populations by smothering food sources.

In New England, it has turned up in the White River, Connecticut River and the Batten Kill, a trout fishing mecca in southern Vermont that's famed for its hard-to-catch fish. Quebec is grappling with it in Matapedia River in the lower St. Lawrence.

There's no easy way to get rid of it. Experts say the only hope is to keep it from spreading. But that's a lofty challenge, since a single cell carried on absorbent fishing gear or clothing can be transferred — unknowingly — into other waters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070826/ap_on_sc/rock_snot

If it affects (diminishes) the food supply of native fish species, then it's a big problem.

I think people need to be aware that they DO affect the environment.  The mode of transport is people who travel from place to place without 'decontaminating' waders, shoes, fishing gear, boats, or basically anything that goes into the water.  This is the same vector as zebra mussels which were transferred from E. Europe and Russia/Ukraine to fresh water ports in N. America.  Ocean going ships should have purged their freshwater ballast while at sea and replaced it with seawater to kill any freshwater life.  Then when they enter a freshwater system, e.g. St. Lawrence Seaway, they can replace seawater ballast with freshwater.  But that also introduces issues of corrosion.

I wonder if it is elsewhere.

I will certainly keep this in mind when using a kayak or canoe.  One has to wash a boat down, which many people do when storing a salt-water craft.  But this applies to freshwater as well.