Progress on Aquatic Invasive Species Research Priorities for the Great Lakes

Progress is reported for specific research priorities; the relevant research question is first listed and progress reported after that. The priorities are divided into the following two categories:

Ongoing Progress: Those priorities for which the Committee feels work is underway, but more research is needed. Research should build on the progress to date and duplicity of work should be avoided. These are the priorities denoted in the main priorities document with an asterisk ( * ).
Significant Progress: Those priorities for which the Committee feels that significant or sufficient work has been completed, warranting their removal from the main priorities document.

Ongoing Progress

Prevention - Maritime shipping (ballast water, hull fouling, anchor lockers, etc)

Continue efforts to purchase or lease vessels for full-scale ballast water treatment technology testing platforms. Make full-scale ballast water treatment test platforms available in the form of shore-based facilities or U.S. Department of Transportation - Maritime Administration (MARAD) vessels and conduct full-scale demonstrations of ballast water treatment technologies on shore or ship under actual operating conditions.

Progress: A freshwater ballast treatment system testing facility has been established in Superior, Wisconsin under the Great Ships Initiative program. See http://www.nemw.org/GSI/facilities.htm.

Continue to develop technologies to reduce the number or concentration of AIS discharged with ballast water in accordance with applicable standards as they are developed.
Continue to develop technologies to reduce entrained and accumulated sediment in ship ballast water and tanks in accordance with applicable standards as they are developed.

Progress (previous two bullets): Development of shipboard ballast water treatment systems has progressed to the point that more than 20 systems are considered likely to be commercially available by the beginning of 2010[2]_._ However, development of reliable methods to evaluate the performance of these treatment systems against a given discharge standard is considerably behind system development and will be one of the major obstacles to gaining the necessary acceptance of systems for implementation on ships carrying ballast water to the United States, especially the Great Lakes. Many systems are being tested under International Maritime Organization guidelines. However, these guidelines do not require testing of efficacy with fresh water ballast, and are tested against standards not presently accepted by the United States and/or several states.

Identify maritime transportation routes, such as has been done with the Ponto-Caspian region, that have demonstrated or have the potential capability to advance the spread of AIS.

Progress: A Smithsonian Environmental Research Center-Fisheries and Oceans Canada study will include quantification of ballast water discharged to the Great Lakes from all origins. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is conducting a formal risk assessment of the shipping vector for the Great Lakes region. A Notre Dame study funded by the Great Lakes Protection Fund is also modeling environmental similarity (temperature and salinity) of all ports globally, and quantifying their connectivity (by shipping) to the Great Lakes using Lloyds of London shipping data.

Conduct research on factors affecting the resuspension of organisms in sediment in ballast tanks.

Comment: Until shipboard treatment systems certified for use in the Great Lakes are verified and in widespread operational use, significant continued research effort should be devoted to advancing the implementation of shipboard treatment systems for ballast water, as well as to continue assessing the efficacy of the present saltwater-based ballast management program.

Prevention - Commerce in live organisms

Review state of risk assessment globally to identify the most accurate and cost effective methods.

Progress: The Centre of Expertise for Aquatic Risk Assessment (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) has completed national guidelines for conducting biological risk assessment and they are currently undergoing formatting and approval prior to release. Risk assessments already underway include: aquarium, water garden, baitfish, and live food trades. In addition, Oregon Sea Grant is leading a project to gather data on the biological supply house as a potential pathway for AIS; the Great Lakes is one of the focus areas of that project.

Prevention - Trailer craft including recreational boaters

Quantify boater movement patterns and develop spread models that more accurately predict high risk invasion sites, and the most important source waters around the basin.

Progress: [information needed]

Conduct environmental niche modeling for priority invasive species localized or absent in the Great Lakes basin to identify vulnerable waters.

Progress: [information needed]

Measure the effectiveness of boater AIS education programs by quantifying behaviors and compliance (at landings) with "Clean Boat" education programs.

Progress: [information needed]

Determine the relative invasion risk posed by different small craft boating groups (e.g., yachts, jet skis, recreational and small boat commercial fishers, guides, etc.).

Progress: [information needed]

Preventing and managing new invasions (general cross cutting themes)

Continue to apply genetic tools to identify relationships among source communities and newly established AIS populations to identify high risk trade routes..

Progress: [information needed]

Detection, Monitoring and Rapid Response

Compile a "hot list" of high risk invasive species that are predicted to be the next pest species to invade the Great Lakes. Conduct research as needed to verify and expand the "hot list" of high risk species, potential source locations, and probable impacts.

Progress: [information needed]

Develop genetic markers for all high risk invasive species predicted to invade the Great Lakes.

Progress: [information needed]

Coordination and Information Management

Develop and promote use of Internet-based research coordination and information system such as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Research Inventory, the Sea Grant Nonindigenous Species site (SGNIS), the Sea Grant National Invasive Species Clearing House and the Great Lakes Aquatic Nuisance Species Information System (GLANSIS) to foster timely communication and information sharing among researchers, policy makers, extension agents, stakeholders and the general public.

Progress: Over 180 species are presently included in GLANSIS, with individual fact sheets for over 70% of them. Full fact sheets for 20 aquatic plants in the database were added in 2008. The GLANSIS Expert Advisory Panel completed a review of plants in the database and concluded that six species listed in the original database were more correctly classified as upland, facultative upland and terrestrial, and these were removed the database. See http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/Programs/ncrais/glansis.html.

Threats and Impacts to Ecosystems, Human Health and Economic Values

Conduct food web disruption studies, including mechanisms and trophic levels.

Progress: NOAA (Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) is conducting multiple on-going research projects that examine the implications and effects of ANS on the food web of the Great Lakes, especially the quagga mussel expansion. Details and updates can be found at http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/Programs/ais/aisList.html.

Significant Progress

Prevention - Maritime shipping (ballast water, hull fouling, anchor lockers, etc)

Evaluate ship practices, such as those identified in the Code of Best Practices developed by the Shipping Federation of Canada that may reduce the likelihood of taking on invasive species in ballast water or discharging them into waters where they can become established.

Progress: A study[1] was completed that examined the Code of Best Practices for Ballast Water Management established by the Shipping Federation of Canada. This study also revealed that the consistent implementation of the Code can be problematic, because application is very much dependent on local conditions - working rules of the dock (24/7 vs. daylight), rainy season vs. dry season, river berth vs. sheltered harbor or deep-water harbor. The practical realities and limitations associated with vessel operations make the existing BMPs inadequate as the lone strategy for reducing the risk of nonindigenous species introductions from NOBOB vessels. However, when consistently applied, these practices do have the potential to contribute to reducing the risk associated with incoming ballast tanks.

Conduct research on ballast in NOBOB saltwater vessels especially.

Progress: Prior to 2006 perhaps the most significant issues related to ballast water management and the Great Lakes concerned the non-regulation of NOBOB (no ballast on board) vessels, which often comprised over 90% of vessels entering the Great Lakes, and the efficacy of mid-ocean (saltwater) exchange. Research completed from 2005-2007 documented the risk associated with NOBOB ballast tank discharges and provided data that suggested use of saltwater as a useful and highly effective method to significantly reduce the ANS risk to the Great Lakes from ballast water[3].

Canada implemented new ballast management regulations starting in 2006 and the St. Lawrence Seaway management authorities (U.S. and Canadian) implemented parallel regulations in 2008 that require diligent sediment management and either saltwater exchange or saltwater flushing for all ballast tanks on ships entering the Great Lakes from outside Canada's Exclusive Economic Zone. Recent research results have supported the efficacy of saltwater as an effective biocide against aquatic species posing the highest risk to the Great Lakes, and continued use of saltwater flushing as a significant management practice for Great Lakes overseas shipping [4] [5] [6] [7], at least until on-board treatment systems are available and in widespread use.

NOAA (Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory), Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada are all conducting on-going coordinated and/or joint research on coastwise vessel traffic ANS risk to the Great Lakes.

Analyze and make accessible the data captured on vessel traffic patterns, volumes of ballast loaded and ballast practices in a timely manner.

Progress: Records of vessel traffic entering the Great Lakes were analyzed for ships entering the Great Lakes[3] from 1978 through 2004. More recently a comprehensive study[8] initiated by Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Fisheries and Oceans Canada for the three-year period 2005-2007, when completed, will provide the most comprehensive characterization to date of vessel activity in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. The US National Ballast Information Clearinghouse has updated its online ballast water database which now supports web-based queries with graphical and tabular output at http://invasions.si.edu/nbic/

Continue to test and evaluate the efficacy of the present saltwater-based managment program in reducing the risk of AIS introductions to the Great Lakes.

Progress: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in collaboration with the Universities of Windsor and McGill, have examined four lines of evidence to determine if ballast water exchange and flushing are effective tools to reduce the risk of ballast-mediated AIS introductions in the Great Lakes. The results are currently undergoing peer review, and are expected to be published in 2010.

Conduct research as needed on the risks of hull fouling, especially with regards to transoceanic passage into the Great Lakes.

Progress: The University of Windsor has completed an extensive survey of hull fouling on transoceanic vessels arriving to the Great Lakes. [9]

Prevention - Canals and artifical waterways connecting Great Lakes to other watersheds

Identify which canals and waterways are most likely to serve as a potential vector for the introduction and spread of AIS into the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin.

Progress: [information needed]

Investigate the feasibility of preventing the spread of AIS by separating canals and waterways in the New York portion of teh Great Lakes basin, the Lake Champlain and New York Barge Canals, as well as other canal systems artifically linking the Great Lakes with other basins.

Progress: [information needed]

Research options to prevent or reduce the movement of AIS into stream segments opened up by dam/impediment removal or culver construction.

Progress: [information needed]

[1] Reid, D.F., T. Johengen, H.J. MacIsaac, F.C. Dobbs, M. Doblin, L. Drake, G. Ruiz, P. T Jenkins, S. Santagata, C. van Overdijk, D. Gray, S. Ellis, Y. Hong, Y. Tang, F. Thomson, S. Heinemann, and S. Rondon. (2007). A Final Report for the Project "Identifying, Verifying, and Establishing Options for Best Management Practices for NOBOB Vessels." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, and University of Michigan Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research, Ann Arbor, 173 pp.

[2] Lloyd's Register. 2008. Ballast water treatment technology. Current status. September 2008.

[3] Reid, D.F. Ballast Water and Saltwater Flushing: Closing a Gap in the Protection Framework for the Great Lakes. ANS Update, 14(1), Spring/Summer 2008, Great Lakes Commission, Ann Arbor, Michigan (http://www.glc.org/ans/ansupdate/pdf/2008/ANS-Update-June-08.pdf).

[4] Ruiz, G. and D. Reid. (2007). Current State of Understanding about the Effectiveness of Ballast Water Exchange (BWE) in Reducing Aquatic Nonindigenous Species (ANS) Introductions to the Great Lakes Basin and Chesapeake Bay, USA: Synthesis and Analysis of Existing Information. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Technical Memorandum GLERL-142, Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, Ann Arbor, Michigan USA. September. 127 pp.

[5] Santagata S., K. Bacela, D.F. Reid, K. Mclean, J.S. Cohen, J.R. Cordell, C. Brown, T.H. Johengen , and G.M. Ruiz. 2009. Eradicating ballast-tank organisms with sodium chloride treatments. Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 346-353.

[6] Ellis, S. and H.J. MacIsaac (2009). Salinity tolerance of Great Lakes' invaders. Freshwater Biology, 54:77-89.

[7] Deneau, M., S.A. Bailey, L. Jean, and C. Wiley. 2009. Have the new ballast water regulations and inspection program reduced the risk of NIS introductions for the Laurentian Great Lakes? Abstract. 16th International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species. Montreal, Canada April 19-23.

[8] Minton, M.S., W.A. Miller, G.M. Ruiz, S. Bailey, and C.J. Wiley (2009). Introducing Non-indigenous species to the Great Lakes via Ballast Water: Quantifying Vector Strength and Evaluating Current Management Strategies. Abstract. 16th International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species, Montreal, Canada, April 19-23.

[9] Sylvester F, MacIsaac H (In Press) Is vessel hull fouling an invasion threat to the Great Lakes? Diversity and Distributions.