More importantly, it generated more media attention that will educate even more young anglers to report new sitings of exotics and not spread them to new waters. The almost monthly reports of new zebra mussel colonies up and down the Mississippi River in the early 1990s are a good example. It was just a matter of time until the Mississippi from St. Paul to the Gulf was colonized. Let's celebrate that we have no inland lakes in Minnesota infested with zebra mussels, ruffe, round gobies, sea lamprey, alewives, or threespine sticklebacks. The success of any educational campaign is a concise, consistent message.
Education is the key.
A new exotic in the Great Lakes will give us a chance to practice not using this phrase. Cercopagis pengoi, otherwise dubbed the fishhook waterflea, is similar to the spiny waterflea. It probably came over from the Baltic Sea, where it has invaded, or from the Black and Caspian Sea, where it is native. Found on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario, it will likely spread throughout the Great Lakes in a matter of a few years. You will hear more about this new invader as it spreads through the Great Lakes, entangling on fishing lines and commercial fishing gear.