Cliff's Notes

From October, 1995 (Update #25)

Zebra mussels have now entered the realm of metaphor. A March 7th article on information technology in Fortune magazine stated that "the data communications industry is growing faster than zebra mussels in a drainpipe..." This reference strikes me as surprising, yet representative of the high profile that these invading bivalves have attained in half a decade. Why surprising? Most exotic species quickly disappear into anonymity. Moreover, the rare invaders that attain widespread notoriety are usually insects, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly and gypsy moth. That the Fortune quote gets the details about zebra mussels wrong is also telling. Zebra mussels don't grow in drain pipes. Still, the fact that a magazine writer latched onto the image of zebra mussels is significant. Zebra mussels have captured the public's imagination. Warranted or not, that fact is yet another facet of their awesome potential.

ID: 199510-17.

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.