First report of tubenose goby (Proterorhinus semilunaris) in the eastern basin of Lake Erie

The tubenose goby (Proterorhinus semilunaris), native to the Ponto-Caspian region, was first discovered in the Laurentian Great Lakes in 1990 after it was introduced through ballast water discharge. Compared with Neogobius melanostomus, another exotic gobiid from the Ponto-Caspian, colonization of the Great Lakes by P. semilunaris has been slow, with reports of the species being largely confined to the Huron-Erie Corridor (HEC) and western portions of Lake Erie and Lake Superior. This is the first report of P. semilunaris in the Great Lakes east of the western basin of Lake Erie. Between 28 June and 27 July, 2012, 176 P. semilunaris were collected from shallow (<1.2 m) water of Marina Lake, a 40 ha embayment in Presque Isle State Park (Erie, PA). The large number of P. semiunaris collected at the site and the presence of individuals as small as 17 mm total length suggest an established population. However, the mechanism by which P. semilunaris was introduced to Presque Isle Bay is not clear. (C) 2012 International Association for Great Lakes Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.