Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 1 • Spring 2007
Conservation Groups Fight
Back in Court to Uphold
Law to Stop Invasive Species
DETROIT, Mich. (April 9, 2007) As
shipping interests seek to strike down
the region's first law to protect boaters,
anglers, swimmers and families from
invasive species, three prominent
conservation organizations today
announced they were joining the court
battle to slam the door on invasive
species entering the Great Lakes.
The Michigan United Conservation
Clubs, National Wildlife Federation, and
Alliance for the Great Lakes (formerly the
Lake Michigan Federation) today filed to
intervene in Detroit federal district court
to defend a Michigan law intended to
protect the Great Lakes from discharges
of invasive species by oceangoing ships.
Interests for the oceangoing ships sued
the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality and Michigan
Attorney General on March 15, 2007 to
derail the law. In 2005, the state of
Michigan passed a law requiring
oceangoing vessels to obtain a permit to
discharge ballast water.
“We’re filing this motion to stand up for
the millions of anglers, hunters, boaters,
campers and families in Michigan and
elsewhere who rely on the Great Lakes
for their jobs, recreational opportunities,
and quality of life,” said Donna Stine,
executive director of Michigan United
Conservation Clubs. “The shipping
industry’s lawsuit is an attack on the
right of Michigan’s citizens to protect
themselves from invasive species.That is
unconscionable, and we won't stand for
it.”
The number one pathway for non-native
aquatic species to enter the Great Lakes
is through ballast discharge from
ocean-going vessels originating in
foreign ports. Since the opening of the
St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, one new
aquatic non-native species has been discovered in the Great Lakes every 28 weeks from all pathways.
Since 1970, 77 percent of the invasions (36 of 47) are
attributable to transoceanic shipping activities.
“What’s wrong with this picture?” asked Andy Buchsbaum,
center director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great
Lakes office.“The shipping industry brings zebra mussels and
dozens of other harmful organisms into the Great Lakes and
spreads a deadly fish virus through the lakes. Now it’s suing
us - Michigan citizens - to stop us from defending our rivers
and lakes and the Great Lakes themselves. Well, we’re
fighting back, and that’s why we’ve gone to court.”
Invasive species such as the zebra mussel, discharged into the
Great Lakes via oceangoing vessels, have caused enormous
ecological and economic damage. Invasive species
out-compete native species such as lake perch, whitefish, and
others for food and habitat and can also impact people in
their daily lives. Recent federal research suspects a
connection between zebra mussels and algae, which can
have toxic effects on human health.
Invasive species also cost the Great Lakes region $5 billion
annually in damage and control costs, according to the Great
Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy released in December
2005.
“Citizens from around the region are paying billions of
dollars annually,” said Cameron Davis, president of the
Alliance for the Great Lakes, which is being represented by
Christopher Tracy of the law firm Howard & Howard in
Kalamazoo, in the litigation.“It’s time for oceangoing ships to
start paying for their own damage to the region. The average
person shouldn’t pay for the shippers’ failure to innovate to
fix this problem that they’ve known about for decades.
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