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Vexing mussels: Officials concede defeat at Lake Powell, seek to contain invasive species


Quagga Mussels, Zebra Clams, and other invasive water species are infesting waters all over the world.

Vexing mussels: Officials concede defeat at Lake Powell, seek to contain invasive species | Deseret News

PROVO — For 14 years, officials at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area focused on keeping Quagga mussels out of Lake Powell.

It was an undertaking, as National Park Service rangers tried to police about 2 million annual visitors and an estimated 400,000 boat launches at eight developed boat access points, and at least a half-dozen other access points along 2,000 miles of shoreline, said Todd Brindle, recreation area superintendent.

Last year, rangers learned they lost the battle against the invasive species in the vast lake.

"We did all we could," Brindle said.

On Monday, Brindle announced at a meeting of local, state and federal representatives from various agencies at the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation office in Provo that the National Park Service is shifting its efforts from prevention to containment. The emphasis now will be on educating boaters and screening boats not as they enter the lake, as was done before, but as they exit.

"There's no way to remove mussels from Lake Powell; no way to reverse that," he said. "We're going to face the lake and try to focus on boats coming out of the lake."

Jordan Nielson, aquatic species coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said the mussels have already spread into 24 miles of Lake Powell, and the state is committed to seeing the infestation stop there.

Lake Powell ran a good program and rangers did their best for 14 years to prevent the mussels from invading the lake, Nielson said, but now it's up to Utah to protect its water.

"Now we have to change our tactics as far as containing mussels," he said. "We don't want them to move away from Lake Powell because we have a lot of other beautiful lakes in Utah that we use for hydropower, for drinking water, for recreation, and we definitely don't want mussels there."

Utahns soon may start hearing about a new "disease," advertised as the "STD of the Sea" or a skiff-transmitted disease, in a public awareness campaign that takes aim at Quagga mussels and their cousin, the zebra mussel.

The Division of Wildlife Resources already has a website that explains the risks associated with the spread of the invasive species and what boaters can do to prevent infestations in other lakes and reservoirs.

The title of the campaign was meant to catch attention.

"It may be offensive to some people, and we understand that, but we want something that resonates with people, that they take personally," Nielson said. "Quagga mussels aren't a disease that are going to affect a person's physical body, but it does affect their boat. It does affect the water they use every day to water their lawn, to drink, to take a shower, so we want to make sure they make a personal connection to how bad these things are going to be to our economy, to our water, to Utah in general."

At the end of the 2013 season, 144,321 boats were stopped and inspected in Utah, and 3,054 decontaminations were performed on vessels flagged as high risk. Only three boats were found to be encrusted with mussels, down from 49 the previous year, but Nielson said the National Parks Service saw more.

Nielson said there are always those who will fall through the cracks, and he urged boaters to decontaminate their vessels by cleaning, draining and drying them up to 30 days in the winter months, 18 days in the spring and fall, and seven days in the summer. The last thing state officials want to do is discourage recreation, but they also want to protect the water by educating boaters.

"We want them to succeed," Nielson said. "We don't want to give them tickets. We want them to comply with the law of their own free will."

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Mussel plague on Lake Tahoe?  July 3rd, 2009

Mussel plague on Lake Tahoe? | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times

Conservationists believe an invasion may be coming that could change the ecology of Lake Tahoe forever.

Quagga and zebra mussels, which cluster onto boats, piers, old boots, beer cans, or anything else that lingers in the water, have infested lakes and reservoirs in California and across the West. A single quagga or zebra mussel lays 1 million eggs a year, so once one creature gets into the lake, "it's all over," said Michael Donahoe, conservation co-chair at the Tahoe Area Sierra Club. The mussels clog boat engines and gobble up fish food, and their razor-sharp shells can cut the feet of unsuspecting beachgoers. 

Conservation groups filed an injunction on Thursday against additional pier and boat ramp construction on the lake, saying that increased boating would drive up the number of potential hosts for the menacing mussels.

No quagga or zebra mussels have been spotted in the lake, said Sierra Club's Ron Grassi, a volunteer boat inspector. But Grassi said he believes a contaminated boat will likely get past inspectors this summer. The mussels latch onto boats, kayaks, wet suits, and other gear, so recreationists could unknowingly transport them.

Boat inspectors check motor boats at launch sites for the tiny larvae, but Grassi says illegal launchers and non-motorized boats escape inspection.

On the busy Fourth of July weekend, Grassi said Friday, boats are lining up 30-deep to get into the water at designated launch points.

Fearing the invasion, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power banned recreational watercraft on Klondike Lake in the Owens Valley in May.

But the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is expanding the lake's boating capacity by permitting the construction of 128 private piers and six boat ramps as part of the Shorezone ordinance passed in October  2008.

I never realized the impact mussels could have.

I hate to say it, given the gravity of this situation, but "Vexing Mussels" would make a great band name.

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