Zebra Mussel menace in California and elsewhere.

[Squidly-Diddly]

http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/Nonindigenous_Species/Zebra_mussel_FAQs/zebra_mussel_faqs.html

Seems unstoppable.

Now they want all these Inspections at lakes, and many lakes are closed to boating as they don't have inspectors.

I imagine they might ban boating at lakes that have been infested in hopes it doesn't spread FROM that lake.

Shouldn't some otherwise non-toxic weak solution of bleach or acid be able to kill these clams?

[Frosty]

Could you not just eat them? It says that you can but warns that they might not taste nice. Well if you like clams they will taste of clams.

Sounds like scare mongering to me by clam breeders. If it was the other way round and they were about to go extinct there would be similar outcry.

Its from America so its all about money and someones pocket.

I don't believe power stations suck up clams!! why dont they suck up other clams and fish.

Smells fishy to me.

[tuantom]

They've been in the big lake here since the 90's and most of the surrounding small lakes for it seems the last 10 years or so. They really were a disaster in the mid - late 90's coating everything (yes everything) in layers; but the sharp little buggers have really taken a nose dive in numbers. Although they're still around, it's more of a nuisance than an actual problem these days.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2672/what-is-the-zebra-mussel-doing-to-lake-michigan

[marshmat]

As tuantom says, the zebra mussels were a huge problem in the Great Lakes in the '90s. They hitched a ride over from Europe in freighters' ballast tanks.

Once here, they began multiplying like crazy. The veligers (larvae) will bind to just about any hard surface, and they grow rapidly. They are incredibly hard to kill (for some reason, they do well in the toxic sludge surrounding steel mills) and will feed on just about any nutrients suspended in the water. For a while in the early '00s, people were having to freshwater-flush their outboards after every trip to get the veligers out before they gummed up the cooling passages. The veligers can survive out of water for some time (intense sunlight or heat will kill them, but they remain hard to remove once dead). Industrial plants and water filtration facilities were spending millions of dollars on divers to clear the things out of intake pipes; a colony could block off half the flow through a two-metre intake grate in a matter of weeks. The shells are razor sharp and rendered many areas unswimmable for quite a few years.

In the last few years, they have started to run out of food- they've choked out the native mollusks, and have filtered out much of the lakes' nutrient supply. They did spread to some inland lakes, but are not as big a problem now as they used to be.

[Frosty]

Ok well thats thrown some more light on the situation,--- but--- if these little blighters clean water then the lakes water will be cleaner as a consequence of them.

[cameron.d.mm]

More light, literally. If I'm not mistaken (and I very well might be) the clear water means more sunlight and thus larger and more algae blooms, and weeds too. Basically anything that photosynthesizes.

[Frosty]

Sigh--- so wadda ya want algae or dirty water.


Eat the clams and invent a new dish called Algea and clam Mc special- 2 dollar.

Or start a health resort on the shore with --you guessed it algae and clams,--- eat all you want for a dollar, bring your own scoop.

How far is this place away from Mexico?--- you know what Im thinking don't you?

Such simple problems!--i should be president.