Alewife

The Great Lakes have suffered the invasion of numerous exotic species of which the smelt, alewife and sea lamprey are probably the best known. More recently, two more species have entered the lakes probably via ballast water from foreign ships. The ruffe (Gymnocephalus cemuus) a small percid, feeds on the eggs and larvae of other percids and whitefish. The ruffe is currently considered to be a threat to Lake Superior s 5- 10 million whitefish fishery. The zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) was discovered in Lake St. Clair in 1985 (31). It has subsequently been discovered at locations throughout the Great Lakes and is of major concern not only environmentally but economically. It has already colonized numerous industrial and domestic water intakes in sufficient numbers to entirely block water flow and is also an intermediate host to parasites which eventually invade fish. 

Bioaccumulation factor (BF) of herring gull (Lams argentatus) eggs/Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) relative to PCB no 153 (Norstrom 1988). 

Among PFC fish contaminants, PFOS is the most crucial and prominent compound. Reports suggest no considerable differences in PFC concentrations among freshwater and marine fish species. PFOA is the second most frequently detected PFCs in fish, but it has been shown that PFOA is detected at much lower concentrations than is PFOS. Quantifiable concentrations of PFOA were detected in lake trout [125, 126], rainbow smelt, and alewife, with concentrations ranging from 0.16 to 6.8 ng/g wet weight (wwt). The difference between the observed PFOS and PFOA concentrations in fish suggests a lower potential of PFOA to bioaccumulate in fish as compared to PFOS. This observation was further confirmed by laboratory... 

Alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, whole California San Joaquin valley September-November 1986 whole fish Common carp, Cyprinus carpio Mosquitofish, Gambusla affinis Bluegill, Lepomis macrochlrus Largemouth bass, MIcropterus salmoides Sacramento blackfish, Orthodon microlepidotus... 

Stanley, J.G. and Colby, P.J. (1971). Effects of temperature on electrolyte balance and osmoregulation in the alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) in fresh and sea water. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 100,624-638... 

Present address Energy Resources Company, Inc., 185 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, MA 02138... 

Total Alewife (Aiosa pseudoharengus) 1,180,000 Lake Ontario Oliver and Niimi 1988... 

Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Lake Michigan have concentrations of PCBs which are three to two times higher than in alewife (.Alosa pseudoharengus) which is preyed upon by older fish (Thomann and Connolly 1984). 

These early observations perhaps would have had greater significance, but the fishery resources in Lake Michigan were at a low ebb, having suffered over-exploitation by commercial fishermen, the invasion of the sea lamprey, and finally by the population explosion of an invading fish species, the alewife (13). Within a few years the alewife population in... 

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