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View Full Version : No surprise...Mussels found at Lake Mohave also



DILLIGAF
01-23-2007, 06:25 AM
Invasive mussel confirmed in Lake Mohave
By SAMANTHA M. NOVICK
Monday, January 22, 2007 9:54 PM PST
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX - An invasive mussel already discovered in Lake Mead and Lake Havasu along the Colorado River has now been confirmed in Lake Mohave, which lies between them, officials said Monday.
Arizona authorities were assessing the threat from the quagga mussel, which, along with its cousin the zebra mussel, has caused widespread and expensive problems in the Midwest and Northeast.
“The state is taking this very seriously to keep the mussels from spreading to other areas,” said Shilo Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Napolitano.
“I think that we should be concerned,” said Larry Riley, fisheries chief for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “In the Great Lakes and in other waterways where they have been found, they have created new costs and concerns. It affects not only how people enjoy the great outdoors but also how they pay their water bill.”
Riley said quagga mussels were found in Lake Mohave on Sunday. They were confirmed in Lake Mead earlier this month and in Lake Havasu last Friday.
The inch-long mollusks, originally from Eastern Europe, cluster around water intakes, creating an expensive problem for water treatment plants and power plants. They also foul boat motors and compete for food with local fish and other aquatic life.
The mussels invaded lakes and rivers in the Midwest and Northeast in the late 1980s.
Arizona Game and Fish Department officials planned a meeting later this week with other state agencies and their counterparts in California and Nevada, Riley said. Meanwhile, divers will check other Arizona rivers and lakes, including Lake Pleasant, he said.
The mussels have been found clustered near the Lake Havasu intakes for California's Metropolitan Water District, which pumps Colorado River to millions in Southern California. Intakes for the Central Arizona Project, which carries water 336 miles to Phoenix and Tucson, are across the lake.
Divers will search the CAP intakes this week, said Bob Barrett, a CAP spokesman.
“They have been found at intakes for the MWD, and the odds are there are probably some on our intake as well,” Barrett said.
Barrett said it's unlikely that the mollusks will accumulate fast enough to prevent water from going though CAP's six intake pipes, but he said scraping the mollusks off could be a costly proposition.
“Absolutely it's serious,” Barrett said. “Expensive? Yeah, maybe. But we don't know,” Barrett said.
Whatever Arizona's response is to the mussels, eradicating them isn't an option, said Russell Cuhel, a senior scientist with the Great Lakes WATER Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“You just have to learn to live with them,” Cuhel said.
Cuhel said the mussels could cause substantial changes in the environment in the next two to three years as the mussels affect the food chain.
One of the biggest changes in the Midwest has been algae blooms, Cuhel said. Constant feeders, the mussels remove large amounts of plankton from the water which increases the visibility of the lake. When more sunlight reaches the lake bottom, algae flourishes, or blooms.
The algae piles up on beaches, creating a pungent smell.
The mussels are disastrous for lake and river ecosystems, Riley said. They feed heavily on algae, which small fish depend on. Game fish such as largemouth bass and rainbow trout depend on those small fish.
The three lakes where the mussel has been found are home to two species of endangered fish, the razorback sucker and the bonytail chub. The mussel feeds upon the same type of plankton that these two fish species depend on.
“The condition of these two species of endangered fish is an issue of growing concern,” Riley said. “Those populations are really sensitive..”

SummerBreeze
01-23-2007, 06:48 AM
It's interesting to know this information..
But how much will these guys spend or "have already spent" on some of the tests that they do and can they really do anything?

Quality Time
01-23-2007, 08:02 AM
I grew up in the Great Lake Region. I can tell you that thier has been a TON of research & tests. As the fellow from Wisconsin said, you have to learn to live with them. There are numerous invasive species that have been introduced into the Great Lakes via ships dumping thier ballast tanks.

THOR
01-23-2007, 08:16 AM
I grew up in the Great Lake Region. I can tell you that thier has been a TON of research & tests. As the fellow from Wisconsin said, you have to learn to live with them. There are numerous invasive species that have been introduced into the Great Lakes via ships dumping thier ballast tanks.
QT,
how do the affect the beaches?

Kilrtoy
01-23-2007, 08:29 AM
Fock Mohave

DILLIGAF
01-23-2007, 10:13 AM
Fock Mohave
:eek: :mad:
:D

Quality Time
01-23-2007, 11:06 AM
QT,
how do the affect the beaches?
I have not noticed a significant impact to the beaches, but only go back their about once a year. I do know that when we Walleye fish in the channels on the bottom, we catch more zebra muscle "clumps" than we do fish:mad:
I would imagine that due to the size of the great lakes and their supporting rivers and lakes (St.Clair, Detroit River etc) the beaches may not be as impacted as they could be on smaller bodies of water IMO.