Lecture: "Invasion history, impacts on native species, and unexpected consequences of the introduction of round gobies into the Great Lakes"

20 years' research on this Great Lakes invasive fish.

In April 1990, David Jude discovered an strange fish in familiar water. It was a round goby in the St. Clair River. Thus began a new era for this non-indigenous species and a journey of discovery for Jude.  

Jude wondered how the round goby would ultimately fit into the Great Lakes food web. But first he wanted to answer more fundamental questions: How did it get here in the first place? What kind of habitat and depths does it prefer? What behavior might its larval forms exhibit? How would they change contaminant bioaccumulation pathways? Would it affect top predators?

In this talk, Jude will explore over 20 years of research and reveal what he has found out about the ecology, impacts, and ecosystem level effects of this non-indigenous species, now found in all five Great Lakes, many tributaries, and most recently, the Mississippi River.

Dr. David Jude is a Research Scientist Emeritus in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. He conducts research on the Great Lakes and connecting tributaries.  He works with yellow perch larvae in Lake Michigan, a remotely operated vehicle on offshore reefs in Lake Michigan, exotic species, and toxic substances, burbot, deepwater sculpin, and larval fish distribution in the Muskegon River.