Great Lakes' Guardians Make Plea to Congress
Detroit Free Press, 2007-05-28
By Eric Sharp, Detroit Free Press
May 28--A move to ban saltwater ships from the Great Lakes, at least temporarily, got a boost this week. Ninety organizations asked for a moratorium on such shipping until Congress enacts meaningful laws to stop the continuing influx of harmful invasive species.
At the same time, some scientists raised the possibility that a continuing drop in the Great Lakes' water levels could make such shipping so unprofitable that oceangoing vessels would eventually abandon the lakes.
The call for congressional action from the Healing Our Waters-Great Lake Coalition came as legislators in Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin followed Michigan's lead. They began considering state bills to try to address the issue of harmful species arriving in the ballast water of oceangoing ships.
Fishermen and hunters have a big stake in the future of the Great Lakes. The outdoors activities we enjoy need healthy ecosystems, and the discovery of a lethal fish disease called viral hemorrhagic septicemia in the lakes has illustrated how quickly an invasive species can cause havoc.
The disease appears to be spreading rapidly from the Great Lakes -- where it almost certainly arrived in a ship's ballast water -- to inland lakes, probably moved there by bait buckets and small boats.
The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition includes Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited. Anyone who fishes or hunts should get behind the effort to force Congress to do its job.
Jeff Skelding of the NWF said it's time to press the issue in Washington because "delay is exacerbating the problem and costing citizens more money." He said studies have shown that zebra mussel damage alone costs the Great Lakes economy $500 million a year, and that the total cost of invasives is about $5 billion.
Jordan Lubetkin, a spokesman for the NWF's Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor, said, "People are upset. I think the issue of invasives in the Great Lakes has reached a tipping point where people are fed up and are demanding that Congress take action."
Lubetkin said that if the coalition had suggested barring oceangoing ships five years ago, it would have been rejected out of hand, "but now the attitudes are changing. No one is saying anymore that this is a crazy idea. All sorts of people are taking it seriously, including members of Congress."
A Buffalo-based organization called Great Lakes United was one of the first to suggest banning saltwater ships until they could guarantee that unwanted animals would not come in with their ballast water.
"The first step was legitimizing the concept, and that has happened," said Jennifer Nalbone, who runs the GLU invasive species program. "In previous years, people were afraid to talk about it. Not any more. We are now seeing in the press that it is being taken very seriously."
Nalbone said preliminary findings by Grand Valley State University economic researchers show that if oceangoing ships were barred, the area's economy would benefit from increased internal shipping in trains, trucks and Great Lakes vessels.
The coalition wants Congress to pass the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act, which would impose strict ballast control measures on ships coming into the lakes. It also would end sewage contamination and would fund the restoration of wetlands.
Nalbone said that many scientists believe that because of global warming, the Great Lakes' water levels will drop several feet over the next few decades, "and that would change the whole issue of saltwater ships coming in. They work on a very close profit margin, and if they can't carry as much cargo (because channels become so shallow), the salties may leave on their own."
She added that ship owners may prove more amenable to compromise over issues like ballast water control "because the shipping industry is trying to paint itself green, and they know that people now are very concerned about what's happening to the Great Lakes."
The coalition members said that now is the time for individuals to contact their state legislators and representatives in Congress individually.
For more information, visit www.healthylakes.org.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Detroit Free Press
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