Despite Prevention Efforts, Mussels Invade St. Croix

From January, 1995 (update #23)

ST. CROIX FALLS, Wis. - For the past two years federal and state agencies have conducted an educational effort, including a boat interception station, to try to slow the spread of zebra mussels into the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. As part of this program, divers surveyed 17 sites on the St. Croix River between Stillwater and Prescott, Minn., this year. Each site was surveyed four times (May, July, August and October). Sites included bridges, piers, buoys, native mussel beds and boats. No adult zebra mussels were found during these dive surveys. However, between Sept. 16 and Oct. 21 zebra mussels were found attached to seven boats in the area. Three of the seven discoveries were made by marina operators as the boats were removed from the water. The remaining observations were made by National Park Service or U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service staff. All of the boats with attached mussels had, at some point during the summer, been berthed for several days at a port in Lake City on the Mississippi River - an area known to be infested with zebra mussels.

ID: 199501-14.

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.