New Goby Research Helps Explain Rapid Spread

New research conducted by University of Michigan fishery biologist David Jude and U-M graduate student Stephen Hensler helps explain how the invasive round goby may have spread so rapidly throughout the Great Lakes.

Jude first discovered round gobies in the St. Clair River in 1990. While ballast water was the most likely source, scientists wondered how the bottom-dwelling goby became mixed with water normally taken for ballast up in the water column.

Now Jude and Hensler have an explanation. During fish sampling trips in 2003, 2004, and 2005, they documented a vertical migration of round goby larvae from the bottom to surface waters at night during the summer breeding season.

The researchers report their findings in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. The authors suggest the nightly movement from the lake bottom to the surface may increase the chances that larval round gobies are drawn into ballast water and transported to and within the Great Lakes.

U-M fish-collection trips to Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake were funded by grants from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and Michigan Sea Grant. Ohio State University’s F.T. Stone Laboratory and Ohio Sea Grant provided support for the Lake Erie work through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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