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Ontario Blasts Feds for Not Protecting Great Lakes From Invasive Species

Posted on: Thursday, 17 August 2006, 15:00 CDT

TORONTO (CP) - Invasive species like zebra mussels will continue to wreak environmental havoc on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway unless Ottawa amends its new shipping regulations, the Ontario government said Thursday.

"The Ontario government is deeply concerned that the new regulations continue to put the Great Lakes at significant risk of invasion by aquatic species from other parts of the world," said Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay.

"I'll be asking (Transport Canada minister Lawrence Cannon) to amend the regulations to reduce this risk."

Draft regulations posted last year by the federal government called for all ships to flush their ballast tanks with salt water, at least 320 kilometres off Canada's shores. Flushing with salt water kills species that might survive in the freshwater Great Lakes.

The regulation that was implemented in June exempts ships filled with cargo from doing so - noting such vessels don't carry ballast water.

But invasive species are still hitching rides in the bottom of ballast tanks of foreign ships filled with cargo, then wreaking havoc on local ecosystems, said Ramsay.

"These species often harm native ecosystems because they compete with, or crowd out, native species," Ramsay said, adding the species frequently spread from the Great Lakes to inland waters.

"They harm Ontario's commercial and support fisheries," he said. "They foul our beaches, they clog water intake pipes and mechanical systems."

Ramsay said he has requested a formal meeting with Cannon to ask the federal government to require salt water flushing for all vessels.

There are already more than 180 foreign species in the Great Lakes, with more than 75 per cent of them introduced since 1970 coming from ballast water on foreign ships.

Statistics from 2002 show that less than seven per cent of tonnage moved around the Great Lakes is on international voyages, said Jennifer Nalbone, Campaign Director for Great Lakes United.

"It really shows you... this fraction of commercial navigation is causing this tremendous problem," she said.

Source: Canadian Press

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