Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Search fish passage bibliography
Jude, D. J. (1997). Round gobies: Cyberfish of the third millennium. Great Lakes Research Review. 3:27-34.
The problem of transport of non-indigenous species from one place to another transacts boundaries, jurisdictions, and most of the efforts of humans to contain them. A recent study by Mills et al. (1995) lists 139 species that have made a substantial impact on Great Lakes ecosystems and they include organisms from bacteria, such as furunculosis, through purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria and Eurasian watermilfoil Myriophyllum spicatum, to fish. The transfer of these organisms was brought dramatically to the attention of businesses and the public with the discovery of zebra mussels Dreissena polymorpha in 1986 (Herbert et al. 1986) as water intakes became clogged, power plant pipes became plugged, and boats and motors became covered with this species. The homogenization of our aquatic communities, loss of biodiversity, and amalgamation of our gene pools because of the introduction of exotic species is a worldwide problem of which the round goby Neogobius melanostomus is just another symptom. The round goby Proterorhinus marmoratus, are our latest uninvited piscine immigrants joining Great Lakes fish communities. These fish are cyberfish, because they came from a distant universe and have the unusual ability to attain high abundances in optimal rocky substrate areas in the face of native fish communities and they also are able to disperse rapidly using Great Lakes freighters as transport vectors.