What Animals Are Affected By Zebra Mussels

Zebra Mussels

What are Zebra Mussels and where can they be found?

Zebra Mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are small freshwater mussels which are approximately an inch long, and are native to the streams and lakes within the Blackness Sea region of Eastern Europe and Southwest asia. The Zebra Mussel gets its name from the dark, striped design on their shells. Usually the beat is a light colour (tan or beige) with darker zig-zag stripes. The average life span for an individual mussel is approximately four to five years.

Zebra Mussels are believed to have hitch-hiked from Europe to North America in anchor h2o from transoceanic ships. They were beginning observed in Ontario in 1988 and have spread throughout the Cracking Lakes, Lake St. Clair and the Mississippi River watershed. The range expansion of Zebra Mussels continues to grow with additional observations in Lake Simcoe, Thames River and at present Sixteen Mile Creek.

Zebra Mussels were commencement seen in Kelso Reservoir in the fall of 2013 when a modest number of mussels were seen fastened to a boat. They have spread throughout the reservoir along rocky shorelines and natural debris (logs, tree stumps) within the reservoir and also fastened themselves to infrastructure beneath water including boardwalk piers, rubber buoys and walls next to Kelso Dam.

They disperse downstream on h2o currents during their gratuitous-floating larval stage. They are simply able to disperse into upstream areas, like Kelso Reservoir, through human activeness. Like other new infestations of Zebra Mussels, it is believed they were introduced to the Kelso Reservoir as attached mussels or veligers (larvae) to an infested recreational boat or were dumped into the reservoir from a alive well or allurement bucket.

How they affect humans and wild animals

The impacts of Zebra Mussels include:

Filter water to the point where food sources such as plankton are removed and modify the food web for other species
They can bear on fish and other wild animals by increasing algal blooms and big colonies affect fish spawning areas
Impact infrastructure and recreational equipment by clogging pipes resulting in damage and maintenance
Their sharp shells tin can cut a swimmer'due south foot
They tin accept wellness impacts on fish, wildlife and humans. Zebra Mussels filter contaminants from the water, and can move them up the food concatenation as mussels are consumed by fish and wild fauna

What is Conservation Halton doing about Zebra Mussels in Kelso?

Conservation Halton is undertaking two main steps, monitoring and managing. Conservation Halton is monitoring the presence of Zebra Mussels in Kelso Reservoir and other parks with lakes and dams – Hilton Falls, Mountsberg and Robert Edmondson. Staff implemented a baseline inventory of 16 Mile Creek in the stream reaches immediately downstream of the Kelso Reservoir, to assess if Zebra Mussels have spread downstream in 2015. Juvenile Zebra Mussels were establish throughout the study surface area fastened to stream substrates as far downstream as Kelso Road. Long-term monitoring of the population downstream of the Kelso Reservoir volition go on in 2016 and subsequent years.

Staff are evaluating options to manage and address the population inside Kelso Reservoir. The normal lowering of water levels each yr is helping to manage the population as information technology exposes the Zebra Mussels to the air for long periods of time, typically over the wintertime months. This results in mussels dehydrating and freezing in the exposed areas of the reservoir. Unfortunately only one or two Zebra Mussels tin cause an infestation and many are still able to survive in the water which remains in the reservoir during winter.

What can you do to assistance stop the spread?

Inspect all recreational equipment that is submersed in water (boats, canoes, paddleboards, trailers, paddles and bait buckets) after each utilise. Remove all plants, animals and mud before leaving the area
Drain h2o from motor, bilge, live wells, and buckets while on state and away from a water source. Flush equipment with hot tap water.
Do not re-use bait from infested waters. Any live bait should be disposed of properly in the garbage to foreclose introductions of zebra mussels and other not-native or invasive species into new areas.
Rinse all recreational equipment used in infested waters with high pressure hot water, or let information technology dry in the sun for at least 5 days.
If you observe Zebra Mussels or other invasive species in the wild, please contact the toll-costless Invading Species Hotline at 1-800-563-7711.

Are Zebra Mussels edible?

Nigh clams and mussels are edible, simply that does not hateful they gustation adept! Many species of fish and ducks eat Zebra Mussels, and then they are not harmful in that sense. All the same, since they are filter feeders, they can accrue contaminants in their body that can be passed up the food concatenation. If a fish eats a mussel, and a person eats the fish, the person tin be ingesting a significant amount of contaminants. To be safe, information technology is not recommended to eat Zebra Mussels.

Further data on how to reduce contagion from eating wild fish tin be found in the "Guide to Eating Ontario Fish", which you tin can view online, or obtain a copy from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests.

Source: https://www.conservationhalton.ca/zebra-mussels

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