Lake Michigan has a tiny new invader that came from the same place as the zebra mussel, but what it means to the ecological balance of the lake is still unclear. On Wednesday, Tom Kelly and the crew of the Inland Seas Education Association's schooner were collecting water samples on Grand Traverse Bay and discovered a fuzzy substance caught on a plankton net. It turned out to be an organism the length and size of a pin called Cercopagis. It is native the Caspian, Black, Azov and Aral sea basins and in August 1998 was discovered for the first time in Lake Ontario.
Scientists have yet to give it a common name.
Specimens also were found Thursday, but water samples from Friday came up negative. Kelly said the organism is thought to like warm water and the cold fronts that have moved through the area this week may have forced it out of the bay. That's probably been to its advantage. So far, little is known about the organism. The big question is how the exotic species' presence will affect the Great Lakes.