Moving Mussels in the Mississippi

From January, 1997 (Update #29)

An attempt to relocate unionid mussels in the Mississippi River ran into problems caused by zebra mussel infestations, according to Marian Havlik of Malacological Consultants in La Crosse. Last summer Havlik moved more than 10,000 unionid mussels about four miles upstream to protect them from damage due to the new riprap that will be placed around the La Crosse bridge piers. Havlik noted that at one of the piers the river substrate was blanketed with zebra mussels, and more than 80 percent of the unionids had up to 120 adult zebras attached. "These numbers greatly slowed unionid recovery by experienced divers, and the removal of zebra mussels greatly increased processing time," said Havlik. "Some of them were so covered you couldn't even identify them, and it was strange that very few were dead." All visible zebra mussels were removed, bagged and disposed by a local waste-management company, which required advance notice to facilitate immediate burial.

ID: 199701-2.

The Zebra Mussel Update was a 4- to 8-page quarterly national newsletter published by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute from May 1990 through May 1997. The ZMU documented the spread of the zebra mussel -- an exotic nuisance mussel -- through North America's freshwater environments, especially the Great Lakes, and on efforts to control it.