Great Lakes mussel research starved of funds as whitefish vanish

Quagga mussels are one of the biggest threats to the Great Lakes, devouring nutrients and killing fish
But research into them averages less than $1 million a year, a pittance compared other invasive species funding
Scientists say without a breakthrough, whitefish will disappear within a few years from vast areasa of Lakes Huron and Michigan

Invasive quagga mussels are one of the greatest threats to fish in recent Great Lakes history, but experts say funding for research to keep them at bay is woefully inadequate.

The mussels are on course to eradicate whitefish populations in Lakes Michigan and Huron in a few years, but the primary federal funding program for mussel control research has allocated just $14 million to the cause since 2010.

That’s less than US taxpayers spend in a single year to keep invasive sea lamprey out of the lakes and a tiny fraction of the $1.2 billion price tag for a planned barrier to guard against invasive carp.

While some research has shown promise, it’s so underfunded that scientists are scavenging discarded parts to scrape mussels from lakebeds. Some are calling for a deeper investment before the whitefish disappear, a loss that would ripple throughout the food web and the $5 billion Great Lakes fishery.

“We just don’t have time,” said Jason Smith, a Great Lakes biologist with the Bay Mills Indian Community. “We need these resources now.”

At recent meetings of fish scientists, some have pitched a bold proposal: A multinational coalition, composed of the US, Canada and indigenous nations focused on finding a way to suppress the mussels that filter plankton and rob the lakes of nutrients fish need to survive.

A diver in a lake. — A diver removes mussels from a rocky reef in Lake Michigan. (Courtesy of Harvey Bootsma)

It’s a longshot that would require support from a federal government that is cutting scientific research and a Michigan government whose leaders can’t agree on routine spending priorities like the K-12 schools budget.

“Right now, only the most immediate, urgent crises are getting attention,” said political strategist John Sellek of Harbor Strategic Affairs in Lansing.

“The sad thing about so many environmental issues is that they’re more like slow-moving disasters…but that doesn’t mean it’s not a disaster.”

Advocates for deeper investment say it may be the only hope for a breakthrough that would allow humans to kill off the mussels before they kill all the whitefish.

We’ve done it before

For inspiration, they point to the last time a threat of this magnitude descended upon the Great Lakes.

It was 1954 and bloodsucking sea lamprey from the Atlantic Ocean had invaded a fishery already weakened by pollution and overfishing. Deepwater cisco had just gone extinct; lake trout and whitefish were next in line.

The US and Canadian governments sprang into action, signing a treaty and creating an international body tasked with quelling the invasion.

Scientists working for that group, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, experimented with thousands of chemical mixes before discovering one that could kill lamprey while sparing other fish. To this day, the commission spends more than $20 million annually keeping lamprey at bay.

Support for the program is widespread and bipartisan because without it, the Great Lakes fishery would collapse.

Several scientists and advocates told Bridge Michigan they believe it will take a similarly well-coordinated effort to subdue the mussels.

Others note that most taxpayer money for lamprey control materialized only after scientists discovered the tool that would work against them. Lamprey, like mussels, were just one of many worthy causes vying for limited dollars.

“It certainly wasn’t that we were spending gobs of money and dedicating thousands of scientists to the challenge,” said Greg McClinchey, spokesperson for the fishery commission. “We got a lucky break,” and then later “capitalized on it to the hilt.”

‘Drop in the bucket’

At the moment, Great Lakes researchers are conducting mussel control experiments on tight budgets, with little certainty about when funding will dry up.

“There’s certainly work going on, and there have been significant investments, but it’s really just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed,” said Samantha Tank, who oversees aquatic invasive species efforts within the Great Lakes Commission, an organization created by the eight Great Lakes states to protect the waterways.

Harvey Bootsma in diver gear. — Harvey Bootsma is a freshwater scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who is studying ways to control invasive mussels the Great Lakes. (Josh Boland/Bridge Michigan)

A device known as the “mussel masher” is dragged along the silty lakebottom, crushing mussel shells to clear a pathway through the colony. (Courtesy of Harvey Bootsma and Inspired Planet Productions)

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee biologist Harvey Bootsma salvaged scrap metal to create a device he refers to as the “mussel masher,” one of several tools he uses to clear mussels from the lakebed.

Now, his work is “running on the fumes from last year’s funding” while he awaits word about whether it can continue to receive funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program that coordinates efforts to improve the waterways.

During his first term, President Donald Trump repeatedly proposed dramatic cuts to it. The proposals failed to make it through Congress amid bipartisan outcry, and no such proposal is on the table today.

But Trump has downsized federal science agencies that conduct and support mussel research and his proposed budget would authorize further cuts. Normally by this time of year, researchers like Bootsma would have grant money in hand. Instead they’re still waiting.

Spokespeople for the US Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, did not respond to questions from Bridge about the status of the program’s funding.

The state of Michigan devotes no money specifically to mussel eradication, although the Department of Natural Resources often collaborates on federal projects, said agency spokesperson Joanne Foreman.

‘Shame on us’

Bridge Michigan reached out to US Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, as well as seven US representatives whose districts touch the Great Lakes shoreline, with questions about whether they believe current investments in mussel control research are adequate.

A spokesperson for US Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said the federal government “must be doing more” and expressed support for “a broad binational, bipartisan coalition” to solve the problem.

A spokesperson for US Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, sent a statement calling invasive species a threat to “everything we value about our Great Lakes.”

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A spokesperson for Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, urged the study of “real solutions” to the mussel problem.

Bridge received no responses from the rest: Peters, Slotkin, Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia, Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland Township, and Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Romeo.

Some scientists see room for other creative methods to encourage development of an effective mussel control weapon.

DNR fisheries biologist Dave Caroffino suggested a contest similar to the Invasive Carp Challenge, then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s offer of cash for the best idea to keep carp out of the Great Lakes.

“It brought people together and got some ideas,” Caroffino said. “Should we do something like that?”

Others see a lack of public concern as the biggest barrier to action.

Governments responded forcefully to the lamprey problem in part because of widespread panic about the toothy, eel-like creatures that clung to fish on anglers’ hooks. But fewer people fish these days. And those who do aren’t reeling in mussels with their catch.

Instead, the tiny shellfish stay hidden beneath the waves, killing fish without leaving so much as a scratch. Their invisibility makes them easy to underestimate, said Doug Craven, natural resources director with the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians.

“But if by 2030, the last whitefish is caught in Lake Michigan… shame on us for allowing it to happen.”

Michigan’s collapsing whitefish

Bridge Michigan senior environment reporter Kelly House is spending this summer examining the near-collapse of whitefish in the lower Great Lakes. Here are the stories we’ve tackled so far: