Invasive shrimp species found in Pennsylvania section of Lake Erie for the first time

Students at Pennsylvania State University discovered an invasive shrimp species in Lake Erie which could potentially harm the ecosystem, Philly Voice reported.

The crustacean, known as Hemimysis anomala, or bloody red shrimp, is designated a "high-risk" species by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service because it can reduce the biomass of zooplankton and algae in bodies of water, affecting the feeding patterns of other native species. 

The bloody red shrimp are native to the Black, Azov, and Caspian seas in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, but in recent years they have been found in every Great Lake except Lake Superior. Bloody red shrimp were likely introduced to the Great Lakes via water from the tanks of ships traveling across the ocean, according to a fact sheet from the United States Department of the Interior. Prior to this discovery, the species had not yet been found in Pennsylvania’s area of Lake Erie. 

Students from Penn State's Behrend campus had received a $177,000 grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund to develop a method of testing water for invasive species by detecting environmental DNA, Philly Voice reported. When they had trouble obtaining enough samples of Hemimysis from Michigan for their research, they tried looked for the species in Pennsylvania, testing water at Erie's Lampe Marina. 

The students found a large swarm of shrimp on their first expedition, Philly Voice reported. They searched for the species at night because the eyes of the shrimp glow in the light from red headlamps, making them easier to detect. 

The small size of the shrimp, which ranges from two to three millimeters, and their translucent bodies were cited as potential reasons why the species had not been detected until now.