The round goby poses a serious threat to North American aquatic ecosystems, with potential impacts on sport and commercial fishing. Since its discovery in the St. Clair River in 1990, this bottom-dwelling fish has rapidly spread too many areas of the Great Lakes. Once established, populations typically increase quickly. The round goby can displace native fish, eat their eggs and young, take over optimal habitat, spawn multiple times a season, and survive in poor quality water - giving them a competitive advantage.
Anglers, commercial fishermen, and fishery professionals should know how to identify the round goby. Often, anglers are the first to discover round gobies because these aggressive fish are commonly caught by hook and line. Your help to report new sightings and to prevent their spread is vital.
What You Can Do
Learn to identify the round goby.
Remove visible aquatic plants, animals, and mud from boat, motor, and trailer before transport.
…show more content… Now the DNR wants anglers to be on the lookout to help make sure round gobies have not spread upstream of the Neenah and Menasha dams and into Lake Winnebago.
The DNR says gobies can be identified by “a single, scallop-shaped pelvic fin on the belly of the fish, a black spot on the front dorsal fin, frog-like raised eyes and thick lips.” They range in size from 3 to 6 inches and are mottled gray in color. The DNR wants anglers who catch a goby to kill it, record information about where and when it was caught and report it to the DNR. There’s a number of ways they possibly could have got here, but it really at this point doesn’t matter how they got here. At this point now we need to worry about containing them as much as we can and preventing the
