September 27, 2018
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
Many true seafood lovers enjoy mussels along with their plate of oysters and clams, but the mussels recently found in Foss Lake aren’t of the succulent variety. They’re much too small and not very tasty for that matter. In fact, they’re a nuisance. More than that, they can cause severe problems as they grow out of control in water intakes.
Barry Hardaway the park manager at Foss State Park says they’ve arrived in the lake, an arrival that had been dreaded as the creatures have jumped from lake to lake all over America. Perhaps, jumping is way too inaccurate. They’re carried from lake to lake, like stowaways, tucked away in the crevices of fishing boats, pontoon boats and other water vehicles.
Hardaway says he’s seen them along the dam, on the south side of the lake, on the west side in some of the swimming areas and picked up rocks from the bottom of the lake and found them there.
He says there’s nothing, really, that anyone can do about them.
According to the internet, the zebra mussel is a small freshwater mussel. This species was originally native to the lake s of southern Russia and Ukraine. However, the zebra mussel has been accidentally introduced to numerous other areas, and has become an invasive species in many countries worldwide.
Hardaway says they multiply readily. The vast majority of the organisms that are natural enemies in Europe are not present in North America. They’re prolific.
They’re native to the Caspian Sea that lies between Russia and Iran.
Foss is just the next lake that’s been made susceptible to the species joining some 20 other lakes in Oklahoma – and the list continues to grow.
As far as a health risk, some think they’re a source of avian botulism which has killed tens of thousand of birds in the Great Lakes, but Hardaway says they not believed to effect humans, though their rough edges can cut a persons foot.
Hardaway says Zebra mussels cluster in large numbers and can impact pipes or intakes drastically reducing the flow of water. This can severely impact boat motors or any other intake if they’re left in the water long enough.
The lifespan of a zebra mussel is four to five years and a female zebra mussel begins to reproduce within 6–7 weeks of settling.
The cost of fighting the pests at power plants and other water-consuming facilities is substantial, but the exact magnitude of the damage is a matter of some controversy. According to one study, the cost of management of Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes alone exceeds $500 million a year.
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