Published: July 31, 2009 11:10 pm      

Author: Invasive species were preventable

Alexander explores issue in new book

TRAVERSE CITY -- It's been 50 years since North America's freshwater inland seas opened to untold economic and transportation benefits through the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Ocean-going freighters navigated into the Great Lakes, eased commercial shipping capabilities and provided the United States and Canada with strategic military options. But the seaway didn't come without a price: Dozens of invasive species hitched a ride into the plant's largest surface freshwater system through ships' ballast waters.

Those new creatures don't just live in the Great Lakes, they change them.

That invasion amounts to one of the world's worst environmental disasters, said author Jeff Alexander, a former award-winning environmental journalist at the Muskegon Chronicle who now works for the National Wildlife Federation.

His new book, "Pandora's Locks: the Opening of the Great Lakes -- St. Lawrence Seaway," explores the history of the seaway and various ways the U.S. and Canadian governments botched opportunities to stem the tide of invaders.

Alexander was in Traverse City this week to sign copies of his work at Horizon Books on East Front Street.

"I was really curious about whether all this was a terrible accident or if it could have been prevented. I found this could have been prevented," Alexander said.

He argues the 57 known invasive species that ocean freighters hauled into the Great Lakes caused more damage than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. It's a costly environmental plague, he said.

"You can clean up oil, but you can't clean up invasives. These critters breed," Alexander said.

And there's no telling what may happen next.

"Despite all the research, the scientists don't know where it will end up," he said.

Andy Knott knows exactly what Alexander means.

"These species introduced huge changes to the Great Lakes and I don't think anyone knows the full impact," said Knott, executive director of nonprofit Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay.

The flood of invasive species -- zebra and quagga mussels, round gobies and spiny water fleas, to name a few -- created a lot of work for environmental advocates and conservationists, Knott said.

"The Great Lakes system is such a dynamic system and when you introduce these species it changes dramatically," he said.

It's important to not only study the ways the ecosystem is changing, but also attempt to prevent invasives' spread to inland lakes inside the Great Lakes' watershed, Knott said.

Others also see the environmental damage in their work.

"There's a consensus among scientists that changes in the food web is our No. 1 problem," said Mark Breederland, extension educator in Traverse City for Michigan Sea Grant.

Invasive mussels feed by filtering plankton from the water, the very base of the Great Lakes' food web. That leaves invertebrates and fish that normally eat the plankton looking for another meal, causing those populations to alter behaviors or die.

"People tend not to pay attention unless it affects them. They look at the water and it's clearer and beautiful. But those lakes are not supposed to look like swimming pools," Alexander said.

It's an ecosystem disruption with implications all the way up the food chain, from avian botulism outbreaks to decreased sizes of native fish, he said.

Alexander wants his book to raise awareness among citizens, perhaps make them "a little bit angry" and maybe even have an impact with politicians in Washington, D.C.

"Hopefully, people will pay closer attention to the lakes. They're huge and people think they're indestructible. They are huge, but also fragile," he said.

Alexander's book was published by Michigan State University Press and the retail price is $29.95. It's available at all major book sellers and also online at www.msupress.msu.edu.