Douglas Belkin reported on a trade related issue this week - invasive species: What's Black and White and Has the Great Lakes Seeing Red?. Invaders Like Zebra Mussels Prompt Michigan to Require Clean Ballast; Shippers Sue (Wall Street Journal, July 5).
He focused on zebra mussels in the Great Lakes:
...a species indigenous to the Caspian Sea that scientists believe was dumped into the Great Lakes with the ballast water used to help stabilize trans-Atlantic ships. Since its discovery, the mussel has cost about $5 billion in damages to power companies, boaters and the fishing and tourism industries. Sen. Birkholz's first sight of the tiny bivalve 19 years ago began her long and frustrating crusade to keep any more invasive species out of the lakes....
The most dramatic example of this is the Zebra mussel, which was first discovered in the lakes in 1988. Each female produces a million eggs a year. The filter-feeding mollusks now cover hundreds of square miles of the lake beds and siphon enormous quantities of organic material at the bottom of the food chain. This disruption results in clearer water, which in turn is allowing invasive plants to grow on the lake bottoms where the sunlight was formerly unable to reach. It also damages delicate food webs and upsets breeding sites, reducing the number of game fish in the lakes.
"It used to take you longer to gut 100 perch than it did to catch them," said Randy Mileskiewicz, a charter-boat captain in Saugatuck who has been fishing in Lake Michigan for 33 years. "Now if you go out and catch six or eight, you're having yourself a good day."
And it's not just zerbra mussels, and not just the Great Lakes:
Scientists estimate that about one third of the 185 foreign invaders in the lakes have been introduced through ballast water. A new species is discovered, on average, every seven months. Some of these invaders have piggy-backed onto the hulls and propellers of recreational boats and spread as far west as Lake Mead in the Nevada desert, threatening to affect Western waterways.
There has been some action at the Federal level,
In the early 1990s, the federal government required all vessels to empty and rinse their ballast tanks on the high seas before entering the Great Lakes. This removes many -- but not all -- of the organisms from ballast water.
But not enough think locals:
For more than a decade, the Great Lakes region's congressional delegation has pushed for invasive-species protection but had only limited success. Coordinating with international maritime organizations is complex and laborious. Powerful lobbyists for the shipping industry have opposed regulation and the issue has been poorly understood in Washington, said Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R., Mich.).
Not well understood in Washington?
A few months after Mr. Ehlers, a nuclear physicist, won his seat in 1993, he was arguing for money in a science committee for Zebra mussel research in an effort to figure out how to stop their spread.
One congressman declared he was adamantly opposed to any such bill.
"He said, 'I will not vote to appropriate money to study the muscles of zebras!"' Mr. Ehlers said. "A little light went off in my head that this was going to take some education.
The State of Michigan has sought to pick up the slack. In 2005 Michigan passed legislation:
The law says that all ships that enter Michigan waters must register with the state. If they intend to dump ballast water, they must treat it with one of four systems, including removing oxygen from the water and using a chemical treatment akin to bleaching, that would help kill any living organisms. The law affects only Michigan water but was written with the intent of galvanizing legislatures in other contiguous states and Canadian provinces to pass similar measures.
Of course there's a law suit, and of course it's not the money, but the principle of the thing:
That battle is coming to a head now in the federal courthouse in Detroit. There, a coalition of nine Canadian and U.S. shipping companies and trade associations sued to nullify a new Michigan law -- championed by Sen. Birkholz -- that requires shippers to clear their ballast water of any living organisms before dumping it into the state's waters. The systems needed for this cost about $300,000 per vessel, according to the state. The shippers say they're not against regulating ballast, but that this particular statute is ineffective and unconstitutional.
"This is a national problem, it's an international problem and federal law ought to be paramount," said Norman Ankers, attorney for the plaintiffs.
Comments