MAISRC in the News

For Mille Lacs, fewer walleyes might be new normal

January 18, 2015

The glory days of one of America's greatest walleye lakes might be gone.

Mille Lacs Lake no longer might be able to support the bountiful walleye stocks that made the 207-square-mile lake legendary among fishermen, yielded annual hauls of a half-million pounds destined for frying pans, gave rise to an economy of resorts and guides and justified a truck-sized statue of the state fish along U.S. 169 in central Minnesota.


U research jumps into the big time

January 14, 2015

By nearly every measure, 2014 was a banner year for research at the University of Minnesota.

It increased its take from the all-important federal grants. It churned out more start-ups and licensing agreements for its discoveries. And it broke into the top tier of a prestigious index of America’s public research universities for the first time.

“We have a great story to tell about the success of the University of Minnesota research engine,” Dr. Brian Herman, the U’s vice president of research, told the Board of Regents recently.


Landwehr: What's gone right in my first four years

January 3, 2015

Aquatic invasive species

We have greatly ramped up our program of education, inspection, enforcement and decontamination. We work closely with the U’s Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center to identify new control techniques. We’re ramping up to help counties deliver AIS programs with the new $10 million the Legislature provided. We worked closely with our congressional delegation to get the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock closed.


Research excellence in practice

December 19, 2014

Researchers target aquatic invasive species

Susan Galatowitsch, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

In the natural world, a few uninvited guests could topple an entire ecosystem. Susan Galatowitsch , Ph.D. and director of the U’s Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center, aims to halt invasive species in their tracks.


Controlling the common carp

December 17, 2014

The common carp is often thought of as an invasive species that can’t be stopped, but can they be controlled?

For years, methods have been tried to slow down the spread of different species of carp all over the country. Many have provided no long-term solutions for a fish that can cause serious damage to lakes where their populations become too abundant.

Carp are notorious bottom feeders that uproot aquatic vegetation. As carp biomass goes up, vegetation goes down and lakes become turbid. Lakes like Christina in Douglas County are examples of bodies of water that were greatly impacted by the infestation of carp over the years.


We don't have to panic over zebra mussels

October 14, 2014

In Minnesota, these invaders are late to the lakes, and treatments are promising.

Five new zebra mussel lakes discovered in the metro region in the last two months prompted the Star Tribune (“Mussels’ march exasperates lake advocates,” Oct. 1) to report that some feel the state is “losing the battle” against this invader. But a look at the facts shows no scientific support for a zebra mussel epidemic out of control in Minnesota.

Zebra mussels arrived in Duluth Harbor in 1989, and in 1992 they reached the Mississippi River in Minnesota. So they’ve been here about as long as they’ve been in other states in the region. All other states with zebra mussels in more than 10 lakes (New York, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin) have experienced a common invasion “trajectory.”


Invasive carp get an earful from Mississippi River noise experiment

August 4, 2014

Any invasive carp trying to swim up the Mississippi River through the shipping lock here will get an earful.

Five underwater speakers blare out a racket equivalent to about 20 outboard motors -- a sound unpleasant to humans, unnoticed by native fish and super-annoying to invasive bighead and silver carp, so much so that they turn tail and swim back downstream, researchers hope.

The "acoustic deterrent system," designed to slow the upstream migration of the non-native fish often known as Asian carp, is activated every time the downstream gates of Lock and Dam No. 8 south of La Crosse open.

The experimental project -- believed to be the largest underwater speaker system in the world -- is the brainchild of University of Minnesota scientists and has been in operation for about a week, researchers said Monday.


Invasive carp reach Twin Cities metro area

July 19, 2014

Two invasive carp netted late last week in Cottage Grove, their northernmost point along the Mississippi River so far, stirred merely moderate concern for now.

Commercial fisherman under contract with the state Department of Natural Resources captured a 40-pound bighead carp and a 20-pound silver carp in Pool 2 of the river, the DNR said. Regional fisheries manager Brad Parsons said the discovery is “disappointing but not entirely unexpected.”

The agency will set additional gill nets and traps this week to determine whether more or younger, smaller invasive carp are in the Grey Cloud Slough area, a backwater lake for Pool 2.


Invasive Species Expert: It's Impossible to Completely Stop Spread

July 10, 2014

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is increasing enforcement on boat landings to help stop the spread of invasive species.

Ray Newman, with the University of Minnesota’s Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center, explains it is impossible to stop the spread of invasive species altogether, but there are steps people can take to reduce the risk of transporting them.

He was on 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS to explain what boaters can do to help stop the spread.


Eggs found in Mississppi weren't those of Asian carp

June 4, 2014

This spring, a federal agency announced that Asian carp eggs had been discovered in Pool 9 of the Mississippi River, about 250 miles farther north than reproducing populations of these carp were thought to have existed.

The finding stunned fisheries researchers and managers, and added urgency to plans already in place to stop the carp from swimming further upstream and establishing footholds in the Mississippi as far north as the Twin Cities, and in the Minnesota and St. Croix rivers.

Federal fisheries managers had concluded by visual inspection that the eggs were those of either silver or bighead carp.