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Coffee House Descriptions
Panelists Biographies
SESSION ONE: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 – 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Harmful Algal Blooms: Prevention, Prediction, Management, and Control
Session Description:
Harmful algal blooms are impacting human and ecological health across the globe in both freshwater and marine systems. In some cases, they can be prevented or controlled, but in others they can only be predicted and managed. The panel will discuss various approaches for dealing with this increasingly intractable problem.
Session Panelists:
Don Anderson, Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Kevin G. Sellner, Executive Director, Chesapeake Research Consortium
Gail Hesse, Executive Director, Ohio Lake Erie Commission
Dan Ayres,Coastal Shellfish Lead Biologist, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Alina Corcoran, Research Scientist, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Session Moderator:
Don Scavia,Graham Sustainability Institute, University of Michigan
SESSION TWO: Thursday, August 1, 2013 - 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Invasive Species: Asian Carp Case Study
Session Description:
Invasive species cost $120 billion annually and cause enormous impacts to native species and ecosystems. The introduction of a relatively small number of non-native organisms can quickly over-run native species as the newcomers reproduce and feed with little or no competition. Once they become established, non-native species are usually impossible to eradicate and often difficult to control, creating permanent changes to ecosystems. Prevention is the primary method to protect native ecosystems from invasive organisms.
The Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system, connected via canals that over a century ago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and erased the continental subdivide that separated the two watersheds, each have been victims of invasive species that originated in the other. Twenty-nine species from the Great Lakes are at high risk to invade the Mississippi system, and ten species from the Mississippi are at high risk to reach breeding populations in the lakes. Those include several species of Asian carps. These carps already have colonized much of the Mississippi River system and moved close to the Great Lakes via the Chicago canal system and other pathways. State and federal governments have taken short and long term actions, including major infrastructure investments, to slow their progress. One option they are considering is re-reversing the flow of the Chicago River to re-create a physical divide between the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes. If this multi-billion dollar project is undertaken, it would stop the flow of invasive species in both direction between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system.
The panel will describe the history, extent and possible impact on the Great Lakes of the Asian carps; the measures currently being employed to address them; and potential future actions, including re-establishing a subcontinental divide between the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes.
Session Panelists:
John Goss, Asian Carp Director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality
and Chair, Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee
Marc Gaden, Communications Director & Legislative Liaison, Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Tim Eder, Executive Director, Great Lakes Commission
Session Moderator:
Andy Buchsbaum, Healing Our Waters Coalition and Great Lakes Office of National Wildlife Federation
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