EON

Regulations Aim To Prevent Further Aggressive Spread Of Invaders

Montreal- The freshwater system in Canada is the worlds largest, circulating along over 3,700 kilometres from the Great Lakes down into the Atlantic Ocean and throughout the heart of North America.

It is also very at risk from invasive species not native to Canada and North America.

The invaders that can breed and thrive are feared to migrate inside the freshwater system, and as such they pose a grave threat to the natural resources, normal usage, the ecology, and the health of the system as well as to our own health.

Large ocean going vessels ply the waterways from coast to coast, and many make their way up the Saint Lawrence Seaway system into and out of the Great Lakes, bringing in vital products and materials.

These vessels bring in coal, salt, raw materials, heavy machinery and iron ore, and they are vital to the supplying and feeding of our agriculture and industrial needs.

But the ships can bring unwanted parasitic species, that cling to the vessels and then drop off unwanted into our waterways.

Species such as the round goby, zebra mussel and Bloody Red Shrimp have came into our ecosystems, and these species and other invader species are robbing our ecosystems. They overtake and eradicate our natural species, clog intakes at power plants, and spread poison and toxins throughout our systems and waterways that were never intended to have these species.

Canadian and United States Corporations that oversee the waterways are announcing new rules designed to help stop this spread. Ballast tanks will have to be flushed with salt water, and the new rules are hoped to have a large positive effect on this serious threat.