Zebra Mussels

In the pantheon of invasive species, zebra mussels (and their cousin, the quagga mussel) have a place of honor–or maybe infamy is a better word. Since first being discovered in the Great Lakes area in 1988, the tiny bivalves have spread throughout the entire watershed. They take food (plankton) from native species, increase toxic blue-green algae levels, clog water intake structures on buildings and boats, and can even kill native clams and mussels by encrusting them.

What’s the answer?

What about eating them, like some places in the Caribbean do with invasive lionfish? This sounds like a great idea—mussels are delicious! Unfortunately, there are several reasons why this isn’t practical. First, zebra mussels are about as big as your fingernail. There just isn’t much there to eat. Second, since they’re filter feeders, if the water they’re in has any pollutants, you’d end up ingesting those as well. Third, the sheer number of zebra mussels makes the task daunting. Some estimates put the number of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes (and inland lakes in the area) at 750 million.

Too small, potentially toxic, too many. If we can’t eat our way out of this mess, what solution is there? There are a lot of potential remedies that are being tried.

There’s the Dock Disk, a $40 device made of flexible foam discs about the size of a dinner plate. The disks have an alloy of copper and zinc that emits ions that the mussels don’t like. A pesticide called Zequanox uses a type of bacteria to poison the mussels. Some companies are making paint that can be used underwater that has copper, chemicals, or even chili oil to try to prevent the mussels from attaching to their surfaces.

In the end, prevention really is the best remedy. In other words, don’t transport water that could be infested from one system to another. Ballast water from a transcontinental ship from western Russia is probably how the mussels got here in the first place, and physically preventing them from moving to new water systems is the best way we can keep them from spreading further. Cleaning anything that has been in the water before leaving the area means that you’re less likely to take any microscopic stowaways home with you. Also, zebra mussels can’t live out of the water for too long, so if you let everything dry for at least five days, it’s safe.

 

Sources:

 

 

Curriculum Reference Links

  •  Biological World / Systems / 5:   Students should be able to conduct a habitat study; research and investigate the adaptation, competition and interdependence of organisms within specific habitats and communities

 



Young Scientist Spotlight:
HANNAH HERBST

10 Fun Facts: The Hab

1. Aquarius is the the world’s only permanent undersea research station.

2. Most missions last about two or three weeks.

3. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, beat his grandfather’s record month-long underwater expedition by spending 31 days on the Aquarius Reef Base in 2014.

4. The lab is used by NASA, the US Navy, and researchers and educators from around the globe for training and research.

5. The internet connection is better in the Hab than at many places above the water.

6. You have to swim underneath the facility in order to enter it.

7. Crew members are called aquanauts (NOT aquaNUTS!)

8. In 1994, a crew of scientists and divers had to evacuate Aquarius and climb up a rescue line to the surface in 15-foot seas after one of the habitat’s generators caught fire.

9. Aquarius was featured in the comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon in 2012.

10. The Hab was originally built in Texas.

10 Fun Facts: Coral

1. Reefs usually grow up on the east shore of land masses.

2. Parts of a coral reef can be harvested to make medications to treat cancers and other illnesses.

3. A coral reef isn’t a single organism; it’s actually a community of life that lives and thrives in one location.

4. Only about one percent of the world’s oceans contain coral reefs. That’s about the size of France.

5. Coral reefs are the largest biological structures on earth.

6. Corals are related to jellyfish and anemones.

7. There are over 2,500 species of corals. About 1,000 are the hard corals that build coral reefs.

8. Reefs grow where there are stronger wave patterns and currents to deliver food and nutrients.

9. The Great Barrier Reef is 500,000 years old.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10 Fun Facts: Invasive Species

1. To be considered invasive, a species must adapt to a new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region.

2. Some invasive species are introduced accidentally, but others are brought deliberately.

3. Ship ballast water transports between 3,000 and 7,000 foreign species daily around the globe.

4. The total loss to the world economy as a result of invasive non-native species has been estimated at 5% of annual production

5. Invasive species have contributed to 40% of the animal extinctions that have occurred in the last 400 years.

6. Rodents are some of the worst invasive species.

7. There are an estimated 50,000 wild ring-necked parakeets in parks across London and southeast England.

8. Black and Norway rats annually consume stored grains and destroy other property valued over $19 billion.

9. Northern Pacific seastars reproduce very quickly. In one area where they were introduced, their population reached an estimated 12 million seastars in just two years.

10. Starlings were introduced to New York in the late 1800s, as part of an attempt to bring animals that were mentioned in Shakespeare‘s work to America.

Alert: Cuteness Overload!

Cutest animal in the ocean? Keep your Sea Otter. Forget the Dumbo Octopus. Axolotl? Close, but no cigar.

The winner of the Cutest Sea Animal prize is the Leaf Sheep Slug.

Yes, a slug. This tiny (5mm) animal, found near the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan, looks like a cartoon sheep covered in bright green leaves with pinkish purple tips.

Bonus: it’s one of the only animals that can perform photosynthesis, thanks to all the algae it eats.

Beat that.

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