What affect have zebra mussels had on the fishing in your lake?

[Rick G]

Zebra mussels can also attach to native mussels, killing them.

I have seen this first hand. 4-5 yrs ago we started seeing a couple zeebs attached to native clams, 3yrs ago the clams were totally covered with them, now all you see is clam shells or beds vacant of everything except the Zebras

Now I'm not a Biologist or anything like it, but I know something that is destroying the native mussel population isn't a good thing.

[PurpleFloyd]

Say fellas, I realize it's soothing to consider the benign impactds of the little invaders but don't you suppose the well educated biologists and scientists at DNR and other agencies have a reason for wanting to rid our waters of them?

[PurpleFloyd]

Unless the zebra mussels remove phosphorus from the lake the water clarity isn't something that will last a long time. My reading leads me to conclude that a huge amount of the phos in a water body is located in the bottom soil and won't go away.

If the zebra's clear the water by eating algae and plankton that has to have an impact on smaller fish and minnows. That in turn has an effect on the prey fish. Can't have a food chain that gets where most fisherman want to go if the first step is cut off. This might be a factor in what has happened to Mille Lacs.

Finally the clear water will allow an increase in weed growth including invasives like curly leaf and milfoil. I can't see a lot of long term benefit when that happens.

Those are great points Tom. I would think if the algae is reduced that as you said, it will lead to more plants being able to grow at different depths and I would think that rooted plants would do a much better job of extracting the phosphorus from the bottom than the algae that the zebes feed on do. Yes, some of that may come from milfoil but other native plants should also have better growth due to the clarity of the water.

The lakes are a pretty big test tube and for the most part the energy in the lake is continually recycled through different life forms as they grow, die, decay and become the nutrients for the next link in the chain. Zebes are not an end all but they will change the path of how that energy is cycled through the chain.

The way I like to approach any research like this is to look at where the species originates and then look at how that particular body of water functions. Obviously you will be seeing thousands or millions of years of adaptation and cannot draw any short term direct conclusions from it but you can get an idea of what the food chain looks like, what their base population level is and then from there you can start to cross reference a local lake and how determine how things will unfold.

In the end the genie is out of the bottle, we can't put the toothpaste back in the tube and we need to decide how much we want to spend to prolong the inevitable. The only shot we have of stopping it 100% from spreading by humans is to close all public and private accesses, ban all boats, docks, inner tubes, and anything else we bring from water to water and even that won't be 100% effective.

[Sonicrunch]

Somebody mentioned perch.

After doing a little online research, it appears yellow perch do indeed feed on the zeebs. (Ohio is were most of the data comes from)

Could we be looking forward to a boom of Jumbos in Mille Lacs??

[merkman]

Lets not forget about the invasive earthworms either....

Click here to see the MnDNR invasive earthworms page

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[mrklean]

Increases in water clarity will mean increases in darkhouse spearing though the ice....

and we all know what THAT can do to a lake.... (gasp) ...

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Haha i needed a little humor today Merk thanks

[Markula]

Its so bad the dnr's list of impacts starts with clogged lawn watering pumps...

BOOM!!!

[herefish101]

Didn't they think that the Zebra Muscles were going to kill Lake Michigan..... I think the last I heard was Lake Michigan was better than ever.

[jjz]

dnr staff is hired and fired by politicians, i think this factor frequently overides any science they conduct.

[S.D. Ice Angular]

No Affect what so ever!!!

[Ufatz]

Well JJZ, in my experience, any scientist or professional working for a F&G agency would walk out the door if a politician tried to tell him how to do his job and report his science. And we just witnessed Governor Dayton TWICE turn back the actions of people who tried to go against the reccomendations of DNR.

It's okay to dislike the Gov. and DNR if you wish, but take it easy on the professional biologists and other scientists who work for us; for the most part they simply do their jobs and let policy makers wrangle over the management decisions.

Okay. Carry on.

[jjz]

ufatz,

i dont doubt dnr staff or their science. i doubt politicians ability to understand it and make the right decision based off it.

[CaptainMusky]

ufatz,

i dont doubt dnr staff or their science. i doubt politicians ability to understand it and make the right decision based off it.

this is exactly correct. I don't want politicians making management decisions on our waters. They are far too easily influenced by special interest groups.

[Stick in Mud]

Its so bad the dnr's list of impacts starts with clogged lawn watering pumps...

Which could actually be a good thing considering what people put in their lawns.

LOL. Tip o' the hat to you, sir.

[Ufatz]

Hey Capt. Musky.....you mean "special interest groups" like sports fishermen and hunters and even those selective and snooty groups like musky hunters?

Those kind of special interest groups? Hee Hee!

[CaptainMusky]

Hey Capt. Musky.....you mean "special interest groups" like sports fishermen and hunters and even those selective and snooty groups like musky hunters?

Those kind of special interest groups? Hee Hee!

I wish it were that simple. :-)

[cylinder]

..... That's just my wild guess based in no fact.

I like it. That's like 90% of the posts we make.