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Great Lakes Forever
c/o Biodiversity Project
4507 N Ravenswood #106
Chicago, IL 60640
773-496-4020 phone
773-906-1303 fax
project@biodiverse.org
 

Biofouling:
Learn More About It


 
  • At least 183 invasive species have been identified in the Great Lakes, and a new species is discovered every 28 weeks. The most common include the zebra and quagga mussels, round and tube-nosed goby, and the sea lamprey.
  • Scientists and engineers use the term "biofouling" to refer to the acretion of dangerous or undesireable organisms to ships, water intake pipes and other equipment. Examples include zebra mussels clogging water intake pipes and other invasive species "hitching a ride" in ship's ballast water.
  • More than 70% of invasive species in the Great Lakes arrived in the ballast water of transatlantic ocean vessels. Ballast water is stored in the ship's hull, where it provides stability and can be adjusted in response to the ship's load.
  • Unfortunately, intake and release of ballast water can result in the inadvertent transport of micro-organisms, including fish and mussel larvae. Some critters, including the quagga and zebra mussels and the round goby, traveled to the Great Lakes via ballast water all the way from Eurasia!
  • Andy's piece reports on one promising technology for preventing biofouling - the generation of tiny electrical fields to repel unwanted organisms from ships and intake pipes. Meanwhile, students at Cornell University have developed slippery antifouling coatings that prevent unwanted organisms from attaching themselves. And the Venturi Oxygen Stripping System reduces the dissolved oxygen in ballast water, killing dangerous invasive species before they reach endangered waters.
  • Important new technologies such as these go hand in hand with regional coordination. The Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act is a comprehensive plan to prevent unwanted, new species from invading the lakes; modernize sewage treatment; clean-up polluted harbors; and restore wetlands. Find out more about how you can help support the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act.
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Wisconsin Public Television is a service of the Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin- Extension .  Wisconsin Public Television is a place to grow through learning on WHA-TV/DT, Madison; WPNE-TV/DT, Green Bay; WHRM-TV/DT, Wausau; WLEF-TV/DT, Park Falls; WHLA- TV/DT, LaCrosse; and  WHWC-TV/DT, Menomonie-Eau Claire.  

Paid for, in part, by a grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management under the Coastal Zone Management Act, Grant #NA06NOS4190183