LAKE ERIE WATERSHED

Shared between the United States and Canada, Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. Most of Lake Erie’s water is supplied by the Detroit River (from Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair); other tributaries including the Grand, Raisin, Maumee, and Cuyahoga Rivers. Water drains out of Lake Erie and into Lake Ontario via the Niagara River at Niagara Falls. The Lake Erie Basin is the most densely populated of the five Great Lakes. The cities of Buffalo, NY, Erie, PA, Toledo and Cleveland, OH, are all located on the shores of Lake Erie.

How do AIS end up in Lake Erie? Many are hitchhikers that are carried along with the cargo or in the ballast water in the hulls of ships that travel from many ports. Perhaps the most famous, and least wanted, hitchhikers to the Great Lakes have been the zebra and quagga mussels that probably traveled from Eurasia to the Great Lakes in the ballast water of a ship. Fishing and boating activities are also common ways that AIS spread from one watershed to another. As with ships, AIS can stick to fishing equipment and to the trailers and hulls of boats without being noticed. Water gardening and the dumping of aquarium fish and plants into waterways are other activities that aid the spread of AIS.

Find out more about other AIS threats to Pennsylvania:
www.pserie.psu.edu/seagrant

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