Mussels Hitching Rides to Tennessee?

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From October 26, 1990 (update #5)

University of Tennessee-Knoxville zoology professor James A. Drake recently has reported finding roughly two dozen zebra mussels on the hull of a recreational fishing boat at the Dale Hollow Reservoir on the Tennessee- Kentucky border. Drake said the mussels, some up to 0.39 inches long, were on a boat brought to the reservoir on a trailer with Ohio license plates, which suggests the boat came from Lake Erie. If true, it would be the first indication of zebra mussels moving beyond the Great Lakes basin on trailerable boats. Much of the boat traffic on the popular bass-fishing reservoir comes from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, according to Assistant Reservoir Manager James Hunter of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Hunter and spokesmen for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said there have been no confirmed sightings of zebra mussels in the state. The TVA, which operates a large network of hydroelectric dams in and around Tennessee, is nonetheless concerned about the potential spread of zebra mussels to inland waters and has brought in consultants from power plants that have experienced zebra mussel infestations, according to TVA biologist Steven Ahlstead.

ID: 19901026-7.

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.