Divers Suited for Veliger Transport

From January, 1995 (update #23)

HAVANA, Ill. - Zebra mussel veligers can be transported by diving gear, according to a recent test by Illinois Natural History Survey biologists Doug Blodgett and Lori Camlin. Three of the approximately two dozen inland lakes known to be colonized by zebra mussels are quarries frequented by divers. Blodgett and Camlin exposed divers in wetsuits ("farmer john" pants, jackets, boots and gloves) to naturally occurring dense concentrations of veligers (2.5 to 23 veligers/liter) in the Illinois River on four separate occasions this fall. After dives lasting up to an hour, the wet suits were removed and stowed separately in plastic bags. Suits were hand-washed, then the wash water was filtered and inspected with a microscope. After a total of seven dives, veligers collected from diving suits ranged in number from zero to 514 per suit. Up to 33 percent of the veligers in some samples were alive up to four hours after the divers had left the water. By contrast, in over 300 hours of diving in zebra mussel-infested waters of the Illinois River, Blodgett and his crew have never found an adult zebra mussel attached to their bodies or their diving equipment.

ID: 199501-6.

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.