Wildlife in United States - Types of USA Animals
Precautionary Measures Initiated Following Detection Of Invasive Round Goby Fish
DNA found at Champlain Canal's second lock in Halfmoon triggers extra monitoring
By Zachary Matson
A positive detection of invasive round goby DNA north of the Champlain Canal's second lock in Halfmoon triggered additional monitoring and changes to canal operations as a precaution, state officials announced Friday.
State and federal agencies have been working to monitor the invasion front of round goby, which are native to the Caspian and Black seas and have spread broadly throughout the Great Lakes after being introduced sometime around 1990.
Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey collected the environmental DNA (eDNA) samples this month, finding a single positive detection above Lock C-2 near Mechanicville, where the canal coincides with the Hudson River. The eDNA method identifies residual genetic material in air, soil and water associated with specific species and is a growing tool for researchers and environmental managers.
Round goby. Photo provided by DEC While they have not captured any actual fish in the area, the eDNA result is an early signal that goby have continued to make progress toward the Lake Champlain basin, where government officials, environmentalists and scientists fear the fish could become the lake's newest invader and wreak havoc on the sprawling lake's fragile ecology.
Limiting lock access, other procautionsThe Department of Environmental Conservation and Canal Corporation announced that effective June 24 the canal would limit to three times a day the number of time locks C-1 and C-4 would open for recreational vessels. They also plan to expand the use of "double draining," which flushes stronger currents of water out of the locks to deter fish passage when open, from locks C-1 and C-2 to include locks C-3 and C-4.
The DEC has announced the following canal changes:
The management precautions are part of a response plan officials adopted in 2023 outlining increasingly protective measures if monitoring indicated goby continued to move toward the Champlain watershed. Researchers are collecting and processing more eDNA samples to see if other positive detections increase confidence the fish has advanced, as well as searching for round goby in the water.
Previously, goby have been captured and detected with eDNA downstream of Lock C-1. Monitoring for the invasive is being conducted throughout the canal, the lake and the Richelieu River north of the lake.
"Early detection is extremely important in preventing the spread of a suspected new invasive species from entering our environment," DEC interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said in a statement.
Plans in placeMeg Modley, an invasive species specialist with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, said the response to the eDNA detection was a sign that the multi-agency prevention plan was working. She said the detection prompted additional monitoring in the water and more prevention in the canal system.
"[DEC and the canal] have a round goby response plan in place and are already moving to take appropriate preventative measures," Modley said. "It's reducing the number of times or opportunities that goby would have to move upstream through the system."
Round goby fish were captured near Troy in July 2022, raising concerns that the invasive species could make its way through the canal into Lake Champlain. The canal starts above the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers and runs inside the Hudson until breaking off the river near Fort Edward, crossing into the Champlain watershed and entering Champlain's southern narrows near Whitehall.
Lake Champlain as seen from Point Au Roche State Park in May. Photo by Zachary Matson About the round goby Round goby is suspected to have made its way to the Great Lakes in shipping container ballast water around 1990. Within five years, the fish had invaded all of the Great Lakes. They have since spread through the Mohawk River and Erie Canal to the Hudson watershed.
Prolific breeders, reproducing every 20 days during the hatching season, round goby feed on the eggs and fry of native fish while overtaking important habitat. They can also carry diseases capable of passing to other fish and birds.
"Any possible spread of the round goby is a concern for all of us and as we work closely with DEC and other partners to further investigate this preliminary detection, the Canal Corporation is taking immediate action to expand our mitigation efforts," Canal Corporation Direction Brian Stratton said in a statement.
Menasha Lock Will Remain Closed After Authority Stops Work On Invasive Species Barrier
MENASHA — The Menasha lock will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
The board of directors of the Fox River Navigational System Authority (FRNSA) voted unanimously Tuesday to stop work on an electric barrier designed to deter invasive fishes like the round goby from swimming upstream to Lake Winnebago and its prized fishery.
The construction of the low-voltage electric barrier was estimated to cost $7 million, plus annual operating costs of $300,000 to $400,000. That proved too costly.
"We could not complete the design and construction of the barrier without significant funds from the state and federal governments," FRNSA Executive Director Phil Ramlet said.
FRNSA spent $750,000 to develop the plan and another $250,000 for invasive species testing.
The Menasha lock has been closed since 2015, when the round goby, an invasive fish populating the Great Lakes, was discovered downstream of Lake Winnebago. The closure has prevented boaters from navigating between Lake Winnebago and Little Lake Butte des Morts.
In the past nine years, the round goby has become abundant in the Fox River and Little Lake Butte des Morts. When the fish was discovered in the waters below the Neenah dam, the lock system was not open to the Great Lakes due to the permanent barrier at the Rapide Croche lock.
"It's possible the goby got into the Fox River through a bait bucket or a boat that was not properly cleaned," Ramlet said. "There's no guarantee that we could invest in building an electric barrier only to later find the goby in Lake Winnebago and render the system obsolete."
Before its 2015 closure, the Menasha lock was the busiest in the system. That title now belongs to the De Pere lock.
The locks are the only way the Fox River is navigable. From Menasha to the Bay of Green Bay, the river drops 168 feet in elevation. Between the Menasha lock and the Rapide Croche lock, the river has 17 miles of navigable water. Between the Rapide Croche lock and the Bay of Green Bay, the river has 20 miles of navigable water.
"Our goal has always been to restore navigation of the Fox River through the lock system, but we also want to ensure we are protecting the waterways," Ramlet said.
If the round goby were to populate Lake Winnebago, FRNSA said it would work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to determine the best course of action regarding the Menasha lock.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.Com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Menasha lock will remain closed after work stops on electric barrier
New Genus Discovered – Paleontologists Unearth 18-Million-Year-Old Goby Fossil
LMU paleontologists discovered a new genus of fossil goby shedding light on the early evolutionary stages and habitat adaptability of gobies, one of Europe's most diverse fish groups. Fossil fish of the new genus †Simpsonigobius. Credit: Moritz Dirnberger
LMU paleontologists have discovered a new genus of fossil goby, unveiling the evolutionary mysteries of a lineage dating back millions of years.Gobies, or Gobioidei, represent one of Europe's most diverse groups of marine and freshwater fish. Typically found at the bottoms of shallow waters, they play a crucial role in the health and operation of numerous ecosystems.
With the identification of a new genus of a fossil freshwater goby, students of the international master program 'Geobiology and Paleobiology' at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and paleontologist Bettina Reichenbacher, professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at LMU, have made a discovery that provides critical insights into the evolutionary history of these fish.
Measuring up to 34 mm, the small fish of the new genus †Simpsonigobius were discovered in 18-million-year-old rocks in Turkey and are marked by a distinct combination of morphological features, including otoliths (hearing stones) with a unique shape.
Modern Research Techniques Elucidate the Position in the Family TreeTo determine the relationships of †Simpsonigobius within the gobioid phylogenetic tree, the researchers utilized a "total-evidence" phylogenetic dataset, which they enhanced in order to combine a total of 48 morphological characters and genetic data from five genes for 48 living and 10 fossil species. In addition, the team employed "tip-dating" for fossil gobioid species for the first time. This is a phylogenetic method in which the age of the fossils (= tips) included in the phylogenetic tree is used to infer the timing of the evolutionary history of the entire group.
The results show that the new genus is the oldest skeleton-based member of the family Oxudercidae – which is classified among the "modern" gobies (families Gobiidae and Oxudercidae) – and the oldest freshwater goby within this modern group. The tip-dating analysis estimated the emergence of the Gobiidae at 34.1 million years ago and that of the Oxudercidae at 34.8 million years ago, which is consistent with previous dating studies using other methods. Moreover, stochastic habitat mapping, in which the researchers incorporated fossil gobies for the first time, revealed that the gobies probably possessed broad salinity tolerance at the beginning of their evolutionary history, which challenges previous assumptions.
"The discovery of †Simpsonigobius not only adds a new genus to the Gobioidei, but also provides vital clues about the evolutionary timeline and habitat adaptations of these diverse fishes. Our research highlights the importance of analyzing fossil records using modern methods to achieve a more accurate picture of evolutionary processes," says Reichenbacher. First author Moritz Dirnberger, currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Montpellier, adds: "The findings are expected to pave the way for further studies on gobioid evolution and the role of environmental factors in shaping their diversity."
Reference: "A new freshwater gobioid from the Lower Miocene of Turkey in a significantly amended total evidence phylogenetic framework" by Moritz Dirnberger, Elena Bauer and Bettina Reichenbacher, 30 May 2024, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2024.2340498
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