Wisconsin Sightings

From October 11, 1991 (update #11)

LA CROSSE - A single adult zebra mussel was found Sept. 12 attached to a native pig-toe mussel in Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi River by biologists from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Fisheries Research Center at La Crosse. Center scientists, in cooperation with researchers from The Ohio State University, are testing chemical approaches for zebra mussel control. The biologists discovered the zebra mussel while collecting native clams for use in tests examining the effects of toxicants on native clams.

SUPERIOR - Zebra mussel veligers and settled post-veligers were found in only a small number of samples collected between mid-August and mid-September and analyzed under the supervision of UW-Superior Zebra Mussel Watch scientist Mary Balcer. The peak densities of 68 mussels per square yard (57/m2) and 0.5 veligers per gallon (0.13/L) were similar to densities found here during 1990. The Superior harbor population has shown little evi-dence of the explosive growth potential of zebra mussel populations colonizing other locations in North America.

GREEN BAY - Zebra mussels were commonly found attached to rocks at numerous west shore access points south of Peshtigo, Wis., during inspections conducted in mid-September by Zebra Mussel Watch personnel. Similar inspections along the east shore of the bay turned up no evidence of zebra mussels beyond Bayshore Park near Dykesville, only 10 miles (16 km) north of the City of Green Bay. Although no veligers were detected during September, veligers were found at barely detectable levels in early October in water samples collected from the Pulliam Power Plant, located where the Fox River enters Green Bay.

ID: 19911011-2.

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.