Sightings Elsewhere

From September 10, 1991 (update #10)

CHICAGO -- Veligers at levels approaching 3,001,730 per cubic foot (85,000/m3) have been found in all 10 of the water intakes in Illinois and Indiana waters of Lake Michigan being sampled weekly by Illinois Natural History Survey researcher Ellen Marsden. Settled mussels also have been found on substrate samplers placed at eight of the 10 sampling sites, Marsden said, with densities as high as 968,784 per square foot (90,000/m2). Settled mussels have been observed only since July 15, she said, whereas veligers had been found at some locations as early as June 3. Marsden noted that both veliger and settled post-veliger densities were highest at the southernmost sample locations, such as Whiting, Michigan City, Gary and East Chicago, Ind., with lower density levels at Illinois sites north of Chicago.

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. -- Zebra mussel veligers were spotted in water samples taken from the New York State Gas & Electric Goudey Power Station on the Susquehanna River near here, according to Cameron Lange of Acres International Corp., a consulting firm. This indicates the Susquehanna has joined the Mississippi and Hudson rivers as the third major drainage system outside the Great Lakes basin to be colonized by zebra mussels this summer. The Susquehanna River ultimately drains into Chesapeake Bay. Lange noted that this was the first time that zebra mussels have entered a new drainage system not directly linked to the Great Lakes, although zebra mussels have spread rapidly throughout inland New York state in waterways directly connected to the heavily infested New York State Barge Canal. He also pointed out that it was unusual that the first sign of mussels in the Susquehanna River system came from discovering veligers, unlike the more typical experience of first finding adult mussels.

ID: 19910910-7.

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.