Hundreds of dead aquatic salamanders have washed up on the shores of Lake Erie since the beginning of June. As Brad Linder reports, scientists are trying to find out what is happening to the lake's mudpuppies.
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Mudpuppy problems
Hundreds of dead mudpuppies are washing up on the shores of Lake
Erie, and scientists aren't sure why.
July 5, 2002
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Over the last few years, a number
of fish have washed up on Lake Erie beaches. But this year, the aquatic
salamanders have been dying off in surprising numbers.
"We haven't seen die offs of mudpuppies like this in the past,"
says Eric Obert, director of Erie's Pennsylvania Sea Grant, a lake
studies cooperative program between Penn State and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. "And it's kind of disturbing
that normal, stable populations of animals are suddenly dying off,
and now we're trying to figure out what's causing this."
Obert says there are a number of possible explanations. "It may
be temperature shocks; it could be some type of blue-green toxic algae
that's causing the problem," he says. Because of the changes
to the aquatic ecosystem in the last decade since the introduction
of exotic zebra mussels and round gobi fish, he says the food chain
has been altered, making toxic algae more common.
But Obert says the leading theory is avian botulism. "Last year
a New York pathologist found botulism in the tissues of some fish
that were in the stomachs of birds," he says. "And so now
we're trying to figure out how the botulism is getting into the fish.
And it's possible that these mudpuppies are also dying off from this
botulism."
Unfortunately, Obert adds, if botulism is running rampant in the lake,
there may not be much researchers can do besides identifying the problem.
"It's a natural phenomenon and we may just have to let it work
it's way out," he says. He points out that similar outbreaks
in Lake Michigan usually only last a few years.
In the meantime, Ober says people are at little risk of contracting
botulism unless they eat undercooked fish caught in the lake. He also
says that since the disease usually paralyzes its victim, it's important
to be wary of sluggish looking fish.
Mudpuppies are large salamanders, growing to about a foot in length,
and spending their entire lives in the water. In Pennsylvania, they
can be found in Lake Erie, and the Ohio and Allegheny River systems.
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Additional
Story
Ingenco construction manager Joe Catina says the Philadelphia
ash has put the region in the spotlight, but is unlikely to
prove very useful for power generation.
Avian
Botulism
A fact sheet on the disease from the Pennsylvania Sea Grant.
The
Common Mudpuppy
Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Herpetological Atlas Project
page on the mudpuppy.
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