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8 



ballast water into Lake Superior. The Task Force determined that 

 control is warranted for ruffe and convened a Ruffe Control 

 Committee to assist with the development and review of a control 

 program. A proposed program has been developed and upon 

 completion of the environmental assessment document it will be 

 released by the Task Force for public review. Proposed control 

 measures include ballast water management through voluntary 

 guidelines, range reduction through the use of piscicides, 

 education, predator evaluation, and surveillance and population 

 investigations . 



Research is the fourth element of the ANS Program. To ensure 

 that research activities carried out under the Act do not result 

 in the introduction and spread of ANS in U.S. waters, the Task 

 Force was directed to develop a research protocol. A Protocol 

 for Evaluating Research Proposals Concerning Nonindigenous 

 Aquatic Species was developed by the Task Force and released as 

 an interim working protocol in September 1992. The final 

 protocol is expected to be issued in November 1993. To assist 

 the Task Force's Research Protocol Committee in evaluating 

 proposals specific to zebra mussels, NOAA and the EPA funded a 

 workshop at GLERL that resulted in the development of Zebra 

 Mussel Containment Protocols, These protocols currently are used 

 in conjunction with the research protocol mentioned above to 

 ensure zebra mussels are not spread through research. 



