Goby count in Great Lakes

[Scuba_18]

To all divers out there that dive the great lakes,

I am a 3rd year biology student at the University of Windsor who is interested in gobies and invasive species research. I realize that this is late in the season for people to start thinking about but I have a huge favour to ask. I will be doing my undergraduate research paper on nesting habitat of gobies in the great lakes. Next summer I will be doing research with an ROV looking at shipwrecks and rubble piles etc. to determine main breeding grounds.

What I need from scubaboard members is to either post a message or go to www.uwindsor.ca/goby and tell the research group about your goby experiences. I will repost, next spring so as to remind you but any current help that you can offer would be great.

We appreciate all help that you give us and look forward to seeing you on the wrecks.

thanks
eric misener

 

[Fortunediver]

Eric,

I dive quite a bit in Lake Erie and am very familar with gobies. I dive mailnly wreck, but also some structures. I have found that they tend to habitat the wrecks more than structures like break walls, underwater stone piles, etc. I also have seen more gobies at somewhat shallower depths, mainly at the 40 - 65 ft. range. I have seen them deeper but not as many. I have done dives to 200 ft., Lake Huron and did not see any at that depth not at around 165 ft. on a wreck. I ahve also noticed the last few years a variety of the sizes of gobies, seems like I am seeing bigger ones.

 

[Tamas]

To add to Fortunedivers observation, what I have seen in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence is that they do tend to stay out of currents and swifter waters. On the other hand they love shallower wrecks (60-80) where the floor seems to move with them there.

Another thing I noticed is the number of larger specimen dead at the beginning of the season this year. While I didn't see any small dead ones, plenty of larger 8-12" long.

 

[Scuba_18]

Just wondering but where did you see the dead gobies and which wreck/depth and time of year.

thanks
eric

 

[Tamas]

It was early June, in Kingston, at about 70-80 feet....on the George T. Davie, on the Wolf Islander and the Glendora

 

[Butch103]

Scuba 18

Can you enlighten us on the Goby..BTW I have seen them as mentioned above, at those depths but nothing deeper than 70 ft inthe St Lawrence @ Rockport.

They are an invasive species, but what is the potential damage that they can/do cause? What can be done to eradicate them safely for our enviroment? Is there any positives to having them i our system?

 

[jiveturkey]

According the the instructions, we are supposed to count the number of gobies within our field of view without changing our sitting position.

Sorry, I've never taken a Biology course in my life so I don't understand the methodology. Can you explain the science involved? Why are we doing this? Obviously you aren't going to tally all the numbers to get a total. Is it trying to find out how many are in a given space or something like that? Is that at all accurate?

 

[mnj1233]

To all divers out there that dive the great lakes,

I am a 3rd year biology student at the University of Windsor who is interested in gobies and invasive species research. I realize that this is late in the season for people to start thinking about but I have a huge favour to ask. I will be doing my undergraduate research paper on nesting habitat of gobies in the great lakes. Next summer I will be doing research with an ROV looking at shipwrecks and rubble piles etc. to determine main breeding grounds.

What I need from scubaboard members is to either post a message or go to www.uwindsor.ca/goby and tell the research group about your goby experiences. I will repost, next spring so as to remind you but any current help that you can offer would be great.

We appreciate all help that you give us and look forward to seeing you on the wrecks.

thanks
eric misener

I run a dive charter to the "Thomas Wilson" quite often in the summer. We see schools of 1000's on this wreck. Location is just outside Duluth, MN harbor. If you want to come down with your ROV etc. then look us up for a trip we can get you there and the boat can accomadate lots of gear!!!

 

[Scuba_18]

There are two different species of gobies in the great lakes, the round goby and the tubenose goby. All counts are to give just an idea of where major populations are to further help in the population studies that will occur later. Better to know a general location and population then spend hours of work and lots of money and be in the wrong place.

Gobies can help by eating Dressnieds. or the quagga and zebra muscles which hurt native muscle populations and clog water intake pipes etc.

www.uwindsor.ca/goby is a great source of info or google gobies in the great lakes.

Gobies hurt by eating fry/eggs of native species like lake trout,lake sturgeon, bass etc. They also destroy nests and once in an area are highly teritorial.

We are experimenting in pheromone traps and other ways to start a control program much like the sea lamprey control program.

thanks again.

eric misener
gobyresearch@gmail.com

 

[Tamas]

...Gobies can help by eating Dressnieds. or the quagga and zebra muscles which hurt native muscle populations and clog water intake pipes etc....

Are you kidding? These things usually sit on top of the 1 to 2 feet thick bed of zebra mussels that encase the wrecks, I haven't seen a decline in the zebra mussel numbers but sure have seen an increase in the gobies'