Ruffe did come in thru ballast and so are round gobies, juvie white perch and sticklebacks. Please read the history of Ruffe more often.Bottomfeeder;2645162; said:
EPA sued over new ballast water discharge rules.
- Thread starter ewurm
- Start date
if you can explain how the strictly freshwater River Ruffe came from Europe OVERSEAS (Seas are saltwater) and into the freshwater Great Lakes, I will happily back down and admit that your point makes senseMN_Rebel;2664634; said:
Many of the busiest European ports are freshwater. A ship unloading cargo at such a port will take on river water as ballast; if its next destination is another freshwater port such as those on the Great Lakes it is likely to transfer living organisms. One of the recommended measures for preventing future transmissions is for ships to exchange their freshwater ballast for saltwater once they reach the sea.
Noto;2683480; said:
Some started doing just that (exchanging seawater) and many believe that's how we got VHS. It's been reported the strain of VHS we have is (was) a strictly saltwater variety.
about anything you would do would be cost prohibitive, or dangeruous, such as some kind of chemical that would kill all organisms, in the balast water, then theres the danger of polution due to the large ammount it would take. This is certainly a delima, and at least part of it is undoable. At what point do we accept that we are basically SC%$^ED
because SO much has been done that cant be undone.
because SO much has been done that cant be undone.
I don't think adding a 55 gallon drum of chlorine to each batch of ballast water would be .01% as bad as the mess we have now. I might also mention it's not cost prohibitive at all.
No that wouldnt be, compared to the preventative good it would do, i would have thought it would take much more, They could dump it in wherever they load and dump it out just prior to entering our waters. That would stop this from happening again, but the big problem is whats done is done, and the damage is most likely not reverseable in our lifetime right ???teleost;2684598; said:
Right, I think the cat is out of the bag with regard to most of the really nasty invasives. Hopefully our ecosystems will be able to readjust and find a new equilibrium that includes the invaders; we just need to be careful not to let them get hit by too many things at once, which is exactly what's happening now.
