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Round Goby


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#21 Guest_dredcon_*

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Posted 14 November 2006 - 11:33 PM

I hear smallmouth love them.

#22 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 15 November 2006 - 01:13 AM

Is there any evidence of predation on the goby by any native species?


Everything eats them....The problem is they are displacing the native foods That those fishes, reptiles and birds would normally eat. Round goby and Zebra mussels have totally altered the food chain in many areas where they are at infestation levels.

#23 Guest_Histrix_*

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Posted 15 November 2006 - 09:11 AM

Is there any evidence of predation on the goby by any native species?


Everything eats them....The problem is they are displacing the native foods That those fishes, reptiles and birds would normally eat. Round goby and Zebra mussels have totally altered the food chain in many areas where they are at infestation levels.


As much as this sucks, it's interesting to see some of the natives adapting to cope with the change.

#24 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 15 November 2006 - 02:20 PM

Is there any evidence of predation on the goby by any native species?


Everything eats them....The problem is they are displacing the native foods That those fishes, reptiles and birds would normally eat. Round goby and Zebra mussels have totally altered the food chain in many areas where they are at infestation levels.


As much as this sucks, it's interesting to see some of the natives adapting to cope with the change.


Most invasive species tend to follow a "bell curve". This is where they explode in numbers as they take over a habitat niche with no defences, then tend to even themselves out as their advantage is taken away. Round gobies are at least in my area (Which was Ground zero for their introduction) leveling out and now not so much of the serious problem they where just a few years ago. They still have irrepairably damaged the the ecosystem that was once here, but now it seems like there effects at least to those animals that do not share their same habitat niche is a bit less. Darters and Sculpin are still a scarce find these days in areas that just 10 years ago where packed with them. They are however still around and the numbers seem to be rising a bit now that the goby population is a bit more in check thanks to the predation on them. One seriously has to wonder and be concerned about the affects of bio-accumulation though on bird reptiles and mammals that feed on the fish that feed on the gobies. This is a big concern given the favored diet of Gobies is the Zebra mussel.

It really helped also that VHS (that virus we are all getting aquainted with) Wiped out close to a whole year class of gobies and still seems to be hitting them hard. This is the only good thing I can see in this particular virus outbreak.

#25 Guest_Histrix_*

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Posted 14 December 2006 - 12:32 PM

Update on the round goby taste test...

I took a couple of cans to the fish division, and not even the curators dared to open it. But yesterday a bunch of foraging undergrads cracked open a can during one of the profs' office hour, so I ended up trying it. It wasn't bad -- it had a definite extra-fishy aftertaste, and it it had a herring-like texture. I wouldn't go out of my way to find it again, but if I was homeless and really hungry I wouldn't hesitate to chow down :P So... who's for developing a fishery and opening a processing plant in Sandusky?

#26 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 29 January 2007 - 11:31 PM

I wouldn't go out of my way to find it again, but if I was homeless and really hungry I wouldn't hesitate to chow down :P


hahaha...those stinkin' Round Gobies

#27 Guest_Histrix_*

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Posted 26 August 2007 - 11:12 PM

Here's a lovely specimen that I caught on a pier in Grand Haven, MI this summer...

Attached Files



#28 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 27 August 2007 - 11:04 PM

Hoo-aah! That's a lot bigger than my mental picture of a goby...

#29 Guest_Mike_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 01:20 AM

If you can Buy me a can of that I'll pay you double above cost.....
I do know these little bastards are a fishery subjects in the caspian sea area I have just never found the product and have been looking quite hard. Interestingly Kate some have been looking into using them on a commercial scale here. These fish and sea lampreys are a possible commercial fishery if it could be marketed properly. I have personally eaten both and found the goby hard to stomach but I could see it being really good if prepared right. Sea lamprey is actually really good and I can't figure out why this is not a fishery target fish. Like with sturgeon though in the late 1800's one really just needs to educate the market about these hidden delicacy items.
My only fear would be that by making them a delicacy item that the stupid government would then "protect" them from over fishing..... :? Something that they are well know for......



I was told that the sea lamprey is very popular in Portugal, but the USA does not want to have a commercial fishery for them. Because then commercial fisherman would demand that they stop poisoning them, and if that happened their population could explode again.

Mike

#30 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 07:59 AM

I was told that the sea lamprey is very popular in Portugal, but the USA does not want to have a commercial fishery for them. Because then commercial fisherman would demand that they stop poisoning them, and if that happened their population could explode again.

Mike


A commercial fishery for Great lakes sea lamprey has been investigated several times. The real problem is a lack of market not really the practice of using TFM to control them. Regardless TFM as a control is on it's way out for newer techniques.

The fish really do not taste all that bad IMO, it is just tough to get people to think of them as a food item in this country.

#31 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 09:00 AM

Hoo-aah! That's a lot bigger than my mental picture of a goby...


That's not even one of the bigguns. There are some here in jars at the Lake Erie Center that are pushing a foot (caught in trawls or from the Caspian & Black Seas).

The fish you normally see are much smaller, however. That's something my friend Matt is looking at... Why they're normal sized at the start of the invasion (big), and then the selection seems for a smaller body size. They haven't seen a fish even the size of Kate's in the western basin for 5 or 6 years.

Todd

#32 Guest_Histrix_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 11:12 AM

That's not even one of the bigguns. There are some here in jars at the Lake Erie Center that are pushing a foot (caught in trawls or from the Caspian & Black Seas).

The fish you normally see are much smaller, however. That's something my friend Matt is looking at... Why they're normal sized at the start of the invasion (big), and then the selection seems for a smaller body size. They haven't seen a fish even the size of Kate's in the western basin for 5 or 6 years.

Todd


Perhaps there isn't enough high-quality food in the western basin to sustain individuals with a larger body size. Feeding on zebra mussels probably costs the gobies more energy than they're worth.

#33 Guest_bullhead_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 11:21 AM

A commercial fishery for Great lakes sea lamprey has been investigated several times. The real problem is a lack of market not really the practice of using TFM to control them. Regardless TFM as a control is on it's way out for newer techniques.

The fish really do not taste all that bad IMO, it is just tough to get people to think of them as a food item in this country.


If I recall, a King of England (one of the Henrys?) died from eating a "surfeit of lampreys", his favorite dish. Not necessarily sea lampreys, however.

#34 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 06:11 PM

If I recall, a King of England (one of the Henrys?) died from eating a "surfeit of lampreys", his favorite dish. Not necessarily sea lampreys, however.


http://www.quite.com...ddeathtext1.htm

#35 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 06:33 PM

If I recall, a King of England (one of the Henrys?) died from eating a "surfeit of lampreys", his favorite dish. Not necessarily sea lampreys, however.


I really do not believe one could die from eating to much lamprey..This was more likely poisoning either intentionally or by mistake. (Cooking in a leaded pot for example "surfeit of Lamprey" is very acidic and could react with some metals) Native Americans have been using Lamprey for food for Thousands of years on the Pacific coast and they do not have stories of dying from it.

The species used in England and western Europe for food are often River (Lampetra fluviatilis) or Sea lamprey so the species is still likely Petromyzon marinus that was used in this not well documented incident.

#36 Guest_bullhead_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 07:50 PM

Well, the web site (from Irate's link) says that they are very fatty and hard to digest. I love the "Lamprey au sange" recipe (Lamprey with blood!).

#37 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 28 August 2007 - 08:00 PM

Well, the web site (from Irate's link) says that they are very fatty and hard to digest.

So is pork but no ones dies from that regularly...

#38 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 29 August 2007 - 12:21 AM

It is curious that most folks take it a face value that King Henry ate enough lampreys to kill him. Surely there is a more plausible explanation?

#39 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 29 August 2007 - 10:17 AM

Perhaps there isn't enough high-quality food in the western basin to sustain individuals with a larger body size.


This is one of the hypothesis... But we think the more plausible one is that there's no limit on nesting sites in Lake Erie with all the rip rap reinforced banks, vs the other Great Lakes where suitable spawning space is far more limited, thus resulting in selection for size.

Todd

#40 Guest_Histrix_*

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Posted 30 August 2007 - 01:06 PM

This is one of the hypothesis... But we think the more plausible one is that there's no limit on nesting sites in Lake Erie with all the rip rap reinforced banks, vs the other Great Lakes where suitable spawning space is far more limited, thus resulting in selection for size.

Todd


Does it look like even the smaller Neogobius can out-compete native species like yellow perch that would also make use of this extra territory?




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