Lake Michigan Goby Explosion

A friend emailed this to me and thought I would share for everyone!



01/11/08 by Jeff Alexander | Chronicle staff writer

LUDINGTON -- A bug-eyed fish that snuck into the Great Lakes in the ballast tanks of
ocean freighters two decades ago is now laying siege to Lake Michigan, according to
new research data.

The round goby population enjoyed a population explosion in 2008. The invasive
species accounted for nearly one-quarter of all prey fish in the lake last year, by
weight, according to data compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes
Science Center.
"We're seeing a dramatic increase in gobies," said Chuck Madenjian, a research
fishery biologist with the USGS. "Round gobies are now a substantial part of the
total biomass of prey fish species ... we caught gobies in 300 feet of water."
The estimated volume of gobies in the lake ballooned to 10 million pounds in 2008,
Madenjian said. By comparison, the total weight of all other prey fish species in
the lake last year was estimated at 46 million pounds.
Gobies are thriving as populations of native prey fish species and alewife -- an
invasive species that supports the artificial salmon fishery -- are decreasing.
The volume of all prey fish species, excluding gobies, dropped 34 percent last year,
according to USGS data. Prey fish abundance in the lake hit another record low last
year, for the second straight year, and was down 95 percent from the record high
tallied in 1989.
Gobies are an undesirable species because they crowd out some native fish and eat
their eggs. But some native fish species, especially smallmouth bass and walleye,
feast on gobies.
Madenjian told a group of charter boat captains at a Michigan Sea Grant fisheries
workshop in Ludington Saturday that lake trout and salmon may acquire an appetite
for gobies.
Salmon imported to the Great Lakes in 1966 dine almost exclusively on alewife. The
volume of alewives in the lake last year was down 30 percent from 2007, Madenjian
said.
The bleak assessment of the lake's prey fish population prompted one angler at the
fisheries workshop to ask: "Should we sell our fishing boats?"
Madenjian and other scientists at the meeting said there is no reason to panic over
the lake's waning supply of prey fish.
"Is this the beginning of the end of the food chain in Lake Michigan? I don't think
so," Madenjian said.
Some biologists believe gobies may become a major source of food for other fish in
the lake, much in the way the alewife, another invasive species, supports the salmon
fishery.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has slashed salmon stocking in the lake
over the past decade to cope with the dwindling supply of alewives.
Scientists at Saturday's conference said salmon will likely eat goby if the fish are
hungry enough.
Dan O'Keefe, an educator for the Michigan Sea Grant program, said he received a few
reports last year of anglers finding dead gobies in the bellies of salmon they
caught.

this is another reason to leave the slot limit for walleyes as is. those big walleyes are more apt to feed on bottom dwelling gobies and they do.

I do know that the brown trout love them because every one I caught last spring out of Lake Michigan was stuffed with Gobies....And if you have noticed the lure makers are even imitating them now...

I know that one of my favorite colors of reef runners is the brown perch which looks like a gobie too. I fished a school of fish a few years ago in big bay and they loved that color, and the bellys were full of them. It will take time but fish will soon adapt to having to eat them.

I really feel they are the reason I don't catch nearly the number of burbot I used to before they showed up. Whenever you catch one now, they are jammed full of the little buggers. I think the numbers are still there, but they swim around "full" all time and don't need to eat my glow spoons "on sight" anymore. The whitefish you catch always have some small ones in their stomachs. That's why they take small minnows so much better here than on Superior. Smallies absolutely LOVE the little bug eyed freaks. If you want to experience a unique wildlife experience, try fishing panfish in the Escanaba harbor in the summer. There are several local blue herons that have learned shore fishermen are a good source for a free meal. They'll gladly sit right next to you and take care of any gobies you care to throw their way. I now know for a fact that an adult blue heron can eat 35 gobies in one sitting.