Ontario Sightings

From June, 1994 (update #21)

The aforementioned North American inland lake sightings exclude two Ontario sightings which appear on zebra mussel maps distributed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Both sightings took place in 1991. A single veliger was detected in Lake Muskoka, and one veliger and one floating adult "translocator" were found in a water sample from nearby Lake Rosseau. The mussels were identified by personnel at the University of Guelph, according to Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources' Warren Dunlop. No subsequent mussel sightings occurred during a similar monitoring program conducted in 1992, Dunlop said. The monitoring program was terminated following that season, though navigation buoys retrieved by the Canadian Coast Guard have been periodically inspected. No settled mussels have been found. Because both Lake Muskoka and Lake Rosseau are populated by home owners, Dunlop said he would likely get calls if mussels turn up on a boat dock or hull. Calcium levels in these lakes are probably too low --around 5 mg per liter -- to sustain a substantial mussel population, he said.

ID: 199406-3.

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.