Monitoring program & water quality
Because of a need for consistent and current data
for fish marketed from the 1836 treaty-ceded waters, ITFAP
began monitoring fish for contaminants in 1991. ITFAP
designed its fish contaminant monitoring program to supplement the monitoring programs of other agencies in the
region. The program also provides consumers with reliable,
up-to-date information on the quality of fish caught in the
treaty waters.
Each year, ITFAP collects lake trout and whitefish
from either Lake Michigan, Lake Huron or Lake Superior.
Fish are analyzed for pesticides, PCBs, mercury and other
contaminants.
ITFAP distributes the results in a final report to CORA-member tribes, Great Lakes agencies and other interested parties. CORA's fishers can use this information to market their products.
Laws banning the most toxic of pesticides and other
contaminants such as PCBs have been in effect since the
1970s. These laws have greatly helped lower contaminants
in Great Lakes fish. Analysis of fish shows a dramatic decline
in the average amount of PCBs found in fish since those
compounds were banned. Contaminants continue to find
their way into the Great Lakes basin despite successful
efforts over the past 20 years to lower levels. Contaminated
sediments remain in many bays and harbors where industrial
activities have been operating. Contaminants also come from
rivers flowing through agricultural areas where pesticides and
herbicides are used, mining operations and from the air itself.
Most mercury contamination, for instance, comes from the
smoke stacks of coal-powered electric plants.
Although most Great Lakes fish are deemed safe to
eat under state and federal advisory guidelines, people are
still very concerned about contaminants.
As part of the effort to stop further contamination of
fish, ITFAP participates in many different committees and
other efforts to improve water quality in the Great Lakes.
CORA also opposes water diversions from the
Great Lakes, and is concerned about activities that may
impact water quality and fish habitat, such as directional
drilling and log removal in the Great Lakes.
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Invasive Exotic Species
Tribal staff participate in national efforts both in the
field and the political arena to deal with exotic species, which
have proved to be a serious threat to the resource. Tribal
fishers are encouraged to report exotic species when
encountered.
Scientists have recorded 130 non-native (non-indigenous)species introductions to the Great Lakes in the past
100 years. They are often referred to as biological pollution,
most often introduced in ballast water of ships doing foreign
trade.Unlike the phosphate pollution of the 1960s, biological
pollution cannot be diluted, washed away by the rains, or
cleaned up.
One of the most destructive of Great Lakes aquatic
exotic species is the sea lamprey. In the 1950s, the lamprey
entered the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean through the
St. Lawrence Seaway and devastated many fish populations.
This parasitic invader was responsible for the crash of ecologically and economically important fish species, costing tax-
payers millions dollars each year.
Tribal biologists assist lamprey control efforts by
maintaining traps, monitoring wounding rates, and practicing
other control measures like river treatments.
The CORA tribes are also very concerned about
other invader species such as zebra mussels, Eurasian ruffe
and the round goby, and participate in programs to monitor
these species. CORA also supported the recent passage of
ballast water controls to help stop the introduction of more
exotics.
Non-indigenous species compete with native
species for space and nutrition. They often out-compete
native species that have evolved natural limits within their
ecosystem. Non-indigenous population explosions and crash-
es have caused immediate and tangible ecological and eco-
nomic difficulties for the people of the Great Lakes basin.
The incremental, long-term loss of biodiversity casts an
increasingly foreboding shadow on the future.
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