Fighting against Zebra Muscles

[Rookie]

Latest info I have found on the Minnesota Zebra Muscle Fight.

[popolarbear]

some fish feed on these. silver snapper, and shelcracker blue gills. i would think local residents wouldn't mind catching 2lb sunfish as a by product of control methods...

[Hydro]

the zebras arnt on the wrecks yet on tonka, i think the deepest they are there is 30 feet down.... is it lack of oxygen? in the great lakes they go all they way down as far as i can tell.....

the muck also slows them down

[scubafreek864]

Fish Feast on Zebra Mussels

By Will Mikell Article published August 27, 2001

Researchers in natural resources have found evidence of a natural predator that eats zebra mussels, the most aggressive of the exotic nuisance species that have invaded Lake Champlain, the Great Lakes and other inland waterways. The discovery was made on Lake Champlain by a team LED by Mary Watzin, director of the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory and associate professor in of natural resources.

Watzin’s crew, using a sophisticated underwater, remote-controlled vehicle, witnessed sheepshead fish using their powerful jaws to crush the mollusks. Most revealing was the sighting of a massive pile of crushed zebra mussel shells.

The researchers also saw yellow perch dining on the zebra mussels, but unlike the sheepshead, the perch were seen eating the mussels whole. The observations are prompting Watzin to look at other impacts of zebra mussels.

"We need to know what eating zebra mussels means to the overall nutrition of these fish," she said. Watzin previously has documented a slow growth rate in yellow perch in Lake Champlain. The increasing abundance of zebra mussels might exacerbate that problem, causing yellow perch to grow even slower, she said. That’s not good news if you’re an angler.

Further research is also underway to determine if both fish (sheepshead and yellow perch) are eating enough zebra mussels to serve as some kind of population control against the pesky mollusks.

[turneffeisland]

Are they edible lol

[Hydro]

yes they are... and at about the same level of the food chain as maggots, Bon appétit!



its illegal to transport zebra mussels, so youd better bring your grill to the lake.

[Hydro]

This just in from the department of we-all-saw-that-coming:

[jasondbaker]

On the bright side, maybe Christmas Lake will be worth diving again after all those zeebs clean the lake up. I snapped a quick photo of the critters in Ore-be-gone this last weekend:

[stick500]

All I've been hearing this summer is that the great vis we have been having on Tonka is primarily due to the zebra mussels. Whether that's the actual case or not, I don't know for sure.

The question now is, has all the doom and gloom that was predicted for the ecosystem/fishery and the hassle for boat owners and dock owners and the people who are in charge of inlet and outlet pipes ever come to fruition? Or, as it seems to me, they turned out not to be as bad as we all thought.

As a diver, and being totally selfish about my sport, I gottta say that if in fact the zebras are responsible for the great vis this summer, and will continue to work that way in the coming years, hell yeh, I'm glad they got in there.