ZEBRA MUSSELS

HELLO ANGLERS I JUST READ AN ARTICLE ON THE IOWA

DNR,s WEBSITE THAT TALKED ABOUT THE ZEBRA MUSSEL, AND ALL THE HARM THAT THEY CAUSE ? THEY

DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE GOOD EFFECTS THEY MAY HAVE ON THE MISSISSIPPI?? DO ANY OF YOU FEEL THE MUSSELS HAVE HELPED OR HURT THE RIVER?? I KNOW I HAVE LOST ALOT OF TACKLE BECAUSE OF LINE WEAR, FROM THEM!! I DO THINK THE WATER CLEARITY IN THE RIVER IS BETTER THAN IT WAS

2-3 YEARS AGO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK

THANKS BASSTRACKER

I haven’t read the DNR article but I think the zebs have done way more harm than good on the river and elsewhere in this country. A lot of the shell beds the walleye guys are drifting and trolling over are dead or dying for two main reasons;

zebs and pollution. The zebs attach to the native mussells and get so thick that the native clams can’t open themselves to breathe, feed, and travel, eventually dying. I used to think the zebs were helping to clean the river by way of filtration, but I’m not so sure anymore. I fish the Lansing area quite a lot and when growing up there the backwaters was some of the cleanest water I can remember. Not anymore. But that might have more to do with heavy barge traffic. I did read where the biologists on lake erie say the zebs have helped to clean that lake but they are also taking away from the food supply that feeds the young fish.

As a side note, the fish in the river are adapting to feed on the very young zebs as they are showing up in the stomach contents of fish. Not enough to dent the population tho.

Sorry this is so long.

Another note on Lake Erie is not only are the zebs robbing food supply, the bottom of the lake is also being found to be void of oxygen. The “choke” beds are so thick that nothing can get through. The bottom 1 to 5″ has been measured to be “0” parts per million oxygen and the layer is thickening. That problem isn’t good for the zebs either! But eventually, how will this effect the spawn beds and the repopulation of all the goodies those fishies eat? Anywhere there was a dead zeb bed, this lack of oxygen was present.

My question that remains unanswered is, if these critters exist in balance elsewhere on this planet, what keeps them in balance there? And why can’t we bring it here? Many of our fish species exist around the globe…………so what’s the real threat? We need a natural preditor of the zebra mussel that can keep up with the numbers.

Looks like we’re getting into fishsqzr’s area of expertise.

But if I recall, they came from the Black Sea via the ballast of Russian ocean going ships. Not so sure if there is a natural predator or if we even want it here, considering the harm it might do to the eco-system in the long run. You just don’t know what will happen after so many years.

The question is always present……………..will an inroduced predator attack our native species, or the one we brought it here for? But this thought has been missing from all the reports I’ve seen. It’s like it’s not even an option. Yet, having known Russians, if indeed that is the native land, they talk of beaches and fishing as normally as you and I. We obviously can’t stop the spread, so why not focus on balance? I wish someone in the know (and we’ve discussed this topic to great lengths a few times here at FTR) would address this issue/possibility. It always gets missed or dismissed. Or are we just waiting to see what our own systems do to combat the invader?

I believe the native mussels have begun amassing large quantities of tiny nuclear warheads disguised as treble hooks and plan to use them soon …. then again that could just be the trebles from the four crankbaits I lost last Saturday and am still bitter about.

Seriously, I don’t know much technical about the zebra mussels, but I know they are nearly completely choking out one of the favorite clam beds I like to fish. It’s disappointing.

This does not answer your question, but I found it interesting. Over the winter the locks at Alma underwent some maintenance which included removing the zebras. They estimated that they took out over 90 TONS from the locks. They used heavy construction equipment to do the job. Source…a neighbor saved a copy of an article from the Wabasha County Herald from this winter.

90 tons of nuclear warheads? Where are we shipping these things??? LOL!

Truly a staggering statistic though…………………..4 crankbaits in one day! UNBELIEVABLE!! LOL!

I do have to wonder………………what do they do with the scraped zebs? Sharp as they are, too bad we can’t use them to lead “weedless lures”!

ecosystems are very complicated… they have evolved as a symphony of life over a period of 10’s of thousands years…. and more….. each species has their own niche.. their role to play, and this is what makes the whole thing work….

now you introduce something outside that system… and it is NOT evolved to FIT…. it overlaps… it competes or should I say outcompetes?…. it destroys…… now introduce something else to control the first species.. and guess what? results WILL be unpredictable… because that “controller” is also NOT evolved to fit in that ecosystem… its also going to “clash” with the locals…. and the end result WILL be harmful…. basically there are NO unexploited niches in a completly evolved ecosystem….. the introduction of a foreign species will ALWAYS impact the ecosystem…. and by that I mean the species that make it up….. eventually the ecosystem will react, evolve… make the new species fit in…. but the resulting whole WILL be different then the old one…. and it may no longer be what we would desire……

I dont know if I was able to define the problem successfully…..

but the truth is… there is NO answer, NO solution that will solve the problem of zebra muscles… or ANY other exotic….. they are here to stay and we have to live with it…. no doubt there will be native species of muscles that will become extinct as a result….. sadly they will most likely be unable to evolve nuclear detterents…. and issue a MAD (mutual assured destruction) proclamation to the zebes….

Good stuff R.Eyes. I agree and think that the consequences will have to be felt and dealt with. Can you elaborate a little more on the good muscles in the river system and what roles they play? Do you know the names of these? I know they stand to become extinct and really have no chance the way it sounds.

Steve Hougom – FTR Webstaff

All of the native species of mussels are good or have value to the river system. Both as food for fish and all other wildlife, and for fitering the water. Those clams you see on the river banks were put there by birds and muskrats. As the sun kills them and they open up, the rats come back to feed on the meat. Same way with the birds.

Good post to a very complicated issue River Eye. It is not a simple “lets put in something to control them” type of thing, because as happend before – then you have to put in something to control the controller and so on and so on. But the whole issue of 0 ppm oxygen over a bed of Zebs is self defeating for the critter, because they end up dead. A heavy infestation of young Zebs (90,000 per sq meter) was reduced to 1,200 per sq meter from late spring to fall in the lower Il river due to very low to 0 oxygen just above the bed. there is no doubt they have contributed to clearer water conditions, but we have not been able to document reductions in young fish because of competition for food – not have they been able to document that in Lake Erie. there have been some community changes in a smaller lake which was more turbid and supported more walleye – clearer water resulted in more vegetation and larger numbers of ambush preditors (largemouth bass and northern pike). The worst is that the Zebs will likely eliminate up to 8-10 species (best guess) of native mussels. I have concerns that the navigation industry which introduced these critters to our system has not been held accountable for their actions. In any other situation, if a single private industry would have done this, they would have had to mitigate the losses that occurred.

Another thing that conerns us is the low oxygen we have been seeing during summer months and hot weather. We have documented 4-5 ppm oxygen below the L&D at Bellevue and Guttenberg during late July and ealy August. If this is largely due to Zebs or not, we are not 100% sure, but it cetainly is a possibilty. Hope this did’nt add more fuel to the fire!!

once again.. thanks much for your input John!! Its really great to have your thoughts on this subject……..

Well looks like we all have our views as to the zebs in the river! I will be contacting the u.s fish & wildlife service here in

Mc Gregor Iowa and see the latest reports on the zebs and there ideas on control!! I worked there in 1991-92 and know most of the staff so maybe I can get some good feedback for us here at FTR thanks to everyone!!

*wow*…. I did not grasp the impact of the oxygen levels at first… but after “further review”… thats pushing O2 levels to a dangerous low…. hovering on the brink of disaster for the entire river ecosystem…. with a little flux you could kill a large portion of the rivers aquatic populations…..

are the levels ABOVE the dam lower than that? I would think there would be some oxygen mixing in the gates……