Contacts
Department of the Interior
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
911 NE 11th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97232-4181
Phone: 503/231-6121
Fax: 503/231-2122
01-95
July 26, 2001
Contact: Denny Lassuy, 503-872-2763
Joan Jewett, 503-231-6121
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working closely with the office of Oregon=s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, have released $275,000 for a three-year study of aquatic nuisance species in the lower Columbia River.
The study will be conducted by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) in collaboration with Portland State University (PSU), the University of Washington, and Oregon State University. Aquatic nuisance species (ANS) are harmful species that are not native to the Columbia, but have been transported here by human activity.
Humans dramatically change natural boundaries by moving species all over the world -- as pets, for recreation, or even accidentally on boat trailers, hiking boots, or, as is the leading concern in this study, in the ballast water of large ships. Ballast water, which is used to stabilize ships while in transit across the ocean, is recognized as one of the leading ways of moving species around the globe -- especially to waters that are home to large commercial ports. This human-aided movement enables non-native species to invade and disrupt natural ecosystems.
A Invasive species are now widely recognized as second only to habitat destruction as a threat to the earth=s biological diversity,@ said Anne Badgley, Regional Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service=s Pacific Region. "If these invaders continue to grow, they can become essentially permanent biological pollutants.@
Commander Scott Newsham, Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Environmental Standards Division, said, "The Coast Guard is pleased to partner with the Fish & Wildlife Service and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in establishing the Lower Columbia River Aquatic Nuisance Species Survey.@
The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission looks forward to participating in the project, said Stephen Phillips, Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator for the Commission. "Aquatic nuisance species are a real and increasing threat to commercial and recreational fisheries on the West Coast," he said.
The Coast Guard provided $200,000 and the Fish and Wildlife Service gave $75,000 toward the study.
The Invasive Species Act of 1996, a federal law, specifically called for this study of the Columbia. Sen. Wyden=s position on key Senate committees will assure him an active role when the law comes up for re-authorization next year. However, this is not a new issue for the Senator. He and his staff, along with the Ports of Portland and Astoria, formed the Columbia River Aquatic Nuisance Species Initiative (CRANSI) in response to threats to the ecological health and economic vitality of the Columbia Basin posed by introduced aquatic plants and animals.
"I can't say enough about the cooperative effort the ports of Portland and Astoria have put into protecting the commercial and biological integrity of the Lower Columbia River," Sen. Wyden said. "It is critical that we implement a comprehensive aquatic nuisance species management plan for the Lower Columbia."
Dr. Mark Sytsma, CRANSI Coordinator and Director of the PSU Center for Lakes and Reservoirs, agreed with those concerns.
"The Columbia River is at tremendous risk for invasion by potentially damaging non-native species, such as mitten crabs, zebra mussels, and hydrilla," Dr. Sytsma said. "This survey will provide a much-needed >snap shot= of the status of the biological community of the river and will provide a baseline for evaluating the success of management strategies aimed at reducing the number of introductions."
The impacts of many nonnative species introductions are hard to predict in advance, but those noted by Dr. Sytsma are well known. Mitten crabs, which may have arrived in ballast water or as an illegally introduced food source, now live in the Sacramento River system in California where their massive spawning migrations plug up Central California=s complex water distribution system. They are also capable of feeding on salmon and sturgeon eggs. A single mitten crab sighting has been confirmed in the Columbia, but they are not yet known to exist in any numbers.
Zebra mussels have clogged municipal water supplies in the Midwest and threaten to do the same to hydroelectric dams, irrigation and fish-screening systems in the West. Zebra mussels were first introduced to the Great Lakes in the ballast water of ships from eastern Europe. Zebra mussels do not live in the West yet, but threaten to invade the Columbia River system by traveling overland attached to recreational boats and trailers B a special concern with the upcoming bicentennial commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the throng of boaters expected to re-enact that famous journey.
Hydrilla is an aquatic weed that grows in dense mats that can blanket a lake or river, effectively choking it to death by depriving it of oxygen and sunlight. The good news is that hydrilla has not yet been found in Oregon; the bad news is that it is considered one of the most dreaded aquatic weeds in the United States and is easily transported on boats and trailers. The Oregon State Marine Board, responsible for recreational boat licensing, routinely asks all Oregon boaters to clean their boats so they don=t spread aquatic weeds.
Oregon has recently enacted a new law, Senate Bill 895, which will govern ballast water management in Oregon waters. The U.S. Coast Guard regulates the ballast water practices of ships entering U.S. waters and it is an evaluation of the effectiveness of those regulations that is driving the need for the Columbia River study.
A The Coast Guard looks to the Lower Columbia River ANS Survey, which is focused on detection and monitoring, to serve as a valuable model study of biological invasions in coastal, estuarine, and riverine ecosystems of the United States,@ said Commander Newsham. ASuch efforts will be instrumental in evaluating national regulatory programs and their effectiveness in reducing the rate of invasions.@
Regional Director Badgley endorsed that sentiment, adding, APrevention, early detection, and effective information sharing among partners are the keys to invasive species management.@
Senator Wyden has also recently succeeded in procuring $500,000 for the Columbia River
Aquatic Nuisance Species Initiative to allow expansion of aquatic nuisance species survey work to upper reaches of the Columbia and to assess hull-fouling and barge traffic as additional dispersal mechanisms for aquatic nuisance species in the Columbia Basin. The funding was included in the Senate Transportation Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2002.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
(Images of zebra mussels, mitten crabs, and a schematic of ship ballast water tanks are available)
Back to Pacific Region News Catalog
|
