Round goby are well established throughout the Great Lakes basin and its tributaries, including the St. Marys River<\/p>\n
Karen Godson was recently fishing at Hilton Beach marina when she caught a round goby, an invasive fish first found in North America in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
Godson didn\u2019t know what\u00a0she\u2019d caught.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used Google Image search to verify what it was . . . it was gasping for breath.\u201d<\/p>\n
Godson said the fish was roughly four inches long. She killed it, which is what you\u2019re supposed to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea they were in this area. Now it makes me question the bigger fish I thought was a catfish, but that got away before I could identify it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat one was about seven inches.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Invasive Species Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, a round goby can be between six and 16 cm in length, which is\u00a0between two and six inches.<\/p>\n
Round goby are a concern because they are an invasive fish that can establish populations quickly and spread through connected waterways.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can impact recreational activities such as angling and sport fishing and broader ecosystem health, as round goby can carry a disease that impacts Great Lakes fish and fish-eating birds,\u201d said Lauren Rogers, senior communications coordinator with the Invasive Species Centre.<\/p>\n
Round goby are well established throughout the Great Lakes basin and its tributaries, including the St. Marys River. They were first found in North America in 1990 in the St. Clair River north of Windsor, Ont.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are problematic because they can outcompete native fish, consume fish eggs and young, and disrupt aquatic food webs,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are also linked to botulism outbreaks in the Great Lakes. By feeding on invasive mussels that can accumulate the botulism toxin, gobies can transfer that toxin to larger fish and fish-eating birds, contributing to fish and bird die-offs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Round goby are able to reproduce multiple times during a single season, eat a wide variety of foods, and can tolerate a range of environmental conditions, making them excellent invaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis allows them to reach high densities and outcompete native species in their invaded range,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Round goby are native to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea region of Eurasia. They are believed to have arrived in ballast water discharged from transoceanic ships.<\/p>\n
In Ontario, it\u2019s illegal to possess a live round goby or to use them as bait.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever release unwanted bait into the water. Even a small bait bucket can introduce invasive species or diseases to a new waterbody,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s illegal to dump bait or bait water into a lake, river, or within 30 metres of the shoreline.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can also help prevent the spread of invasive species by cleaning, draining and drying your boat and equipment when moving between waterbodies,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of Ontario’s General fishing regulations, regulated invasive species, including round goby, should be destroyed and not released back into any waters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
If you think you\u2019ve spotted an invasive species, please report the toll-free Invading Species Hotline at 1-800-563-7711<\/a>, visit EDDMapS<\/a>, or search for the \u2018Invasive Species in Ontario\u2019 project on iNaturalist.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round goby are well established throughout the Great Lakes basin and its tributaries, including the St. Marys River…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,291106,66],"class_list":["post-834057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-round-goby","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}