round goby

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Winter Goby Watch During Battle on Bago, Sturgeon Spearing

On: February 13, 2026

In: 2026, AIS, aquatic invasive species, Fox-Wolf Basin, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Habitat and Wildlife, ice, ice fishing, invasive species, Recreation, reporting, roby, round goby, spearing, sturgeon, Winnebago, Winnebago Waterways

Battle on Bago, Sturgeon Spearing Time on Winnebago Perfect Time to Check That Catch Thousands of folks are arriving on Lake Winnebago this week with big dreams. People are dreaming of spearing a mammoth sturgeon or maybe catching that perfect fish for Battle on Bago resulting in a new truck. Dreaming of creating those [...]

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Round Goby Discovery in Winnebago Update; Assessment Ramps Up

On: September 26, 2025

In: 2025, AIS, aquatic invasive species, Bowen St. Fishing Pier, Community & Events, Event - Non-FWWA, fishing, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, goby, invasive species, Lake Winnebago, monitoring, Outreach and Education, round goby, WDNR, Winnebago, Winnebago Waterways

Fish Caught Off of Bowen St. Fishing Pier in Oshkosh In June, an angler caught a round goby in Lake Winnebago at the Bowen Street Fishing Pier in Oshkosh, the first known detection there. The invasive fish is about 3 to 6 inches long with bulging frog-like eyes and a fused fin on their [...]

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Reminder – Report Catches of Round Goby in Winnebago System

On: July 1, 2025

In: 2025, AIS, announcement, aquatic invasive species, oshkosh, Outreach and Education, round goby, Winnebago

Goby Reported By Angler near Bowen Street Fishing Pier in Oshkosh We need your help! We ask anglers to be on the lookout for any round gobies (Neogobius melanostomus) in the Winnebago System and to report any catches or sightings of these invasive fish. Round gobies are an aggressive invasive fish that reproduces quickly and [...]

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Menasha Lock Re-Opening Plans Put On Hold Indefinitely

On: July 2, 2024

In: 2024, AIS, aquatic invasive species, Boating, Butte des Morts, Fox River Navigational System Authority, invasive, Lake Butte des Morts, Lake Poygan, Lake Winnebago, Lake Winneconne, little lake butte des morts, menasha lock, Outreach, round goby, watershed, WDNR, Winnebago, Winnebago Lakes, Winnebago Waterways

Cost for Electric Fish Barrier Significant, Board Votes to Stop Project

Original Story: Fox River Navigation System Authority

The Fox River Navigational System Authority (FRNSA) board voted in late June to halt work on the Menasha lock re-opening project, with no set date for resuming development of an electric barrier in the lock channel.

The Menasha lock (located between Lake Winnebago and Little Lake Butte des Morts) had been the most-used lock in the system between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay. After the discovery of a round goby below the Neenah dam in 2015, FRNSA voluntarily closed the lock in an effort to keep the invasive fish out of Lake Winnebago. Since then, the round goby has become abundant in the Fox River and Little Lake Butte des Morts.

The FRNSA has spent more than $750,000 on a proposed electronic barrier which would have allowed boats to pass through the lock, but emit a DC current to repulse fish from entering the lock channel.

However, with an installation cost of $7 million, plus an annual operating cost of $300,000-$400,000, the FRNSA board voted to stop work on the project. Since 2015, FRNSA has been working with experts in aquatic ecosystem management to design a plan using a system of an electric deterrent barrier and water flow regulation at the Menasha lock. Board members indicated further work on the proposal was not within the organization’s budget.

Prior to closing the Menasha lock, it had been the busiest lock on the system; now the DePere lock is the busiest. The locks are the only way the Fox River is navigable—from Menasha to the Bay of Green Bay the river drops in elevation 168 feet. From the Menasha lock to the Rapide Croche lock the river has 17 miles of navigable water. On the northern end of the river from Rapide Croche to the Bay of Green Bay the river is navigable for 20 miles.

“Our goal has always been to restore navigation of the Fox River through the lock system, but we also want to ensure we are protecting the waterways,” Ramlet said. He added FRNSA has maintained a testing program for invasive species for years.

Photo Credit: FRNSA

Questions? Comments? Contact Chris Acy, the AIS Coordinator covering Brown, Outagamie, Fond du Lac, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties at (920) 460-3674 or chris@fwwa.org!

Follow the Fox Wolf Watershed Alliance’s Winnebago Waterways Program on our Winnebago Waterways Facebook page or @WinnWaterways on Twitter! You can also sign-up for email updates at WinnebagoWaterways.org.

Winnebago Waterways is a Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance program. The Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance is an independent nonprofit organization that identifies and advocates effective policies and actions that protect, restore, and sustain water resources in the Fox-Wolf River Basin.

Check out the Keepers of the Fox Program at https://fwwa.org/watershed-recovery/lower-fox-recovery/

Reporting invasive species is a first step in containing their spread. Maintaining and restoring our waters and landscapes can reduce the impacts even when we don’t have other management options to an invasive species.

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Sea Grant-funded graduate student goes from round gobies to a zoo-filled menagerie

On: October 6, 2020

In: Erik Carlson, John Janssen, Milwaukee County Zoo, round gobies, round goby

Sampling for round gobies on Lake Michigan can be unpleasant because you can be handling slippery fish and often braving cold, windy and choppy lake conditions. But at least fish don’t sneeze on you.

Cheetahs do. If you are Erik Carlson, you’ve known the discomforts of both those experiences thanks to graduate work and now a job that brings contact with all sorts of animals.

Carlson wouldn’t have traded away either experience, though. The round goby research provided a solid academic grounding and his research team validated the theory that the fish are migrating to deeper waters in colder months.

His research team was led by his adviser, John Janssen at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences. Carlson said, “John has a wealth of knowledge about the Great Lakes. I learned a lot from him. I sampled with him and also assisted in teaching some of his classes.”

Erik Carlson with a fellow student, docked alongside of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, where he received a master’s degree in freshwater sciences. Contributed photo.

Carlson is now the life support technician for the Milwaukee County Zoo. It’s a newly minted position for the venerable zoo and is due to, “The director, who wants to modernize and update exhibits. He has done a good job,” said Carlson, whose main responsibility is the complex water filtration system that is part of the $13.5 million Hippo Haven, which opened in February. As an undergraduate student, Carlson worked a stint in commercial aquaculture, so he knows his way around pumps and operating aquatic-organism habitats.

Where does the cheetah come in? “This is a really interesting job. It’s nice to go behind the exhibits. Being with the zookeepers, I’ve been close to animals. I’ve had a cheetah sneeze on me,” Carlson said.

He also manages the water quality for the Lake Wisconsin and otter exhibits, as well as a Pacific coast installation that features an octopus.

Carlson has been keeping the hippos happy in their underwater-viewing exhibit since joining the zoo 10 months ago, following his December 2019 graduation with a master’s degree in freshwater sciences. Most recently prior to that, he worked on a Sea Grant-funded project, “Seasonal Depth Distribution of Round Goby in Lake Michigan, Emphasizing Cold Seasons,” with Janssen as the lead project investigator and in collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U. S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

While not as charismatic as the African beasts known as river horses, round gobies make up for their questionable appeal in numbers. These three-to-six-inch invasive fish reproduce very quickly—up to six times per summer—in Great Lakes waters. Carlson and Janssen conducted sampling on the Milwaukee slice of this extensive population from 2017 to 2019, considering whether or not, through their seasonal distribution, they could provide a food source for brown trout and burbot who inhabit deeper offshore waters.

Round gobies were first detected in Lake Michigan in 1994. They likely hitchhiked in the ballast water of oceangoing ships from Eastern Europe. Because they are mainly a coastal species, their movement offshore into deep water was not anticipated early in the round goby invasion. Yet, there was anecdotal information that deep-water migration was happening in the colder months of the year.

To check it out and because of the fish’s preference for rocky habitat, traditional trawl sampling was prohibitive. Janssen posited the use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with a tracking system that could observe the number of round gobies along transects. This was coupled with specimen collection for diet and aging investigation. Sampling and ROV observation took place in all seasons except December, January and February.

“The coolest thing about the project was using the ROV to actually see the bottom of the lake. It was a unique opportunity and a different way of sampling,” Carlson said.

Their findings bore out the news of interest, confirming that round gobies were in the same spot as brown trout and burbot at certain times, offering the larger sport fish another prey option. “These bottom-dwelling round gobies are delivering energy to the lake. Fishermen would like to know that,” Carlson said.

A submitted illustration depicts depth and date configurations of round gobies near Milwaukee. The nonnative fish concentrate in deeper waters during the fall and move to shallow depths during spring warming. Those cooler-weather locations mean more interaction with potential prey fish, like brown trout.

The research team also presented the findings with implications for the Lake Michigan food web to the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and through a session of the International Association for Great Lakes Research 2019 conference.

News Releases – Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/sea-grant-funded-graduate-student-goes-from-round-gobies-to-a-zoo-filled-menagerie/

Moira Harrington

Round Goby facts

On: October 28, 2019

In: aquatic invasive species, fox locks, Fox Locks in the News, fox river locks, Fox River Navigational System Authority, Important information, menasha lock closed, Press Releases, round goby

In September of 2015, FRNSA voluntarily closed the Menasha lock at the request of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to prevent the spread of an invasive fish, the round goby, which was discovered in Little Lake Butte des Morts. The goby is one of 192 invasive species found in Lake Michigan. The invasive species barrier at the Rapide Croche lock prevents transmission of any species from the Great Lakes into the lock system and eventually the Lake Winnebago watershed.

What do we know about round goby behavior?

Fish are uniquely sensitive to electrical currents because their muscle control is based on electrical impulses through their nervous system, and because they inhabit a conductive environment. Electrical barriers and guidance systems make use of this sensitivity.

We have reviewed results of scientific reports from researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Based published research, we know these characteristics of the round goby:

The round goby is a bottom dweller where the current in an electronic barrier would be strongest.
The velocity of the water in the navigation channel will affect the travel of the round goby. Part of the electronic barrier operations plan calls for flushing the lock daily prior to any lockages up or down the system.

How did the round goby get here?

The round goby is an invasive fish found in the Great Lakes. Several were found in Little Lake Butte des Morts in September of 2015. When they were discovered, the lock system was not open to the Great Lakes and there were no populations of round gobies in Lake Winnebago according to DNR testing. Additionally at the time of discovery, there were three miles of dry canal and three de-watered locks between Little Lake Butte des Morts and Kaukauna. It is important to remember the Fox River flows north and it is impossible for fish to travel from the bay of Green Bay to Lake Winnebago through the lock system due to the barrier at the Rapide Croche lock. The round goby were most likely introduced into the system as fishing bait, or on pleasure boats that were not adequately cleaned.

Is the Menasha lock the main entry point for round gobies?

No. Since the fish was found, there is a verified population in Little Lake Butte des Morts. Currently, there are more than 60 boat landings into Lake Winnebago that are not monitored, and each summer float planes land in Lake Winnebago thus increasing access points for invasive species.